The focus of this paper is the public sector’s role as training establishments for apprentices, and the willingness and ability of public employers to hire apprentice graduates after training. Previous research points to the demand of skilled workers as the prime motivation for firms in the private sector to take on training responsibility for apprentices (Acemouglu & Pischke 1998, Morenweiser 2008, Wolter et al. 2006). In the public sector, however, there are different mechanisms at play. In this paper we examine Norwegian municipalities’ relatively new role as training establishments for apprentices in Health work and Child care and youth work. These trades within the vocational education and training (VET) system educate for health care and child care and youth services, where needs for skilled labour are anticipated to be high. Based on survey data and qualitative interviews, we find that managers in the municipal sector perceive the trades as highly relevant in providing skills that meet present and future needs. Yet, there is poor recruitment of apprentice graduates. We draw upon theories on institutional change and societal sector’s decision making structure in order to understand this discrepancy.
The Health worker and Child care and youth worker, as relatively new trades, need to find their distinct trade identity and position between the long established welfare professions and unskilled labour within the established institutional structures (Høst 2010, Aamodt et al. 2011). Institutions are characterised by inertia and the ability to resist change (Powell & DiMaggio 1991, March & Olsen 1989, Pierson 2004). Changes in the institutional patterns can either be induced by exogenous shocks (Powell & DiMaggio 1991) or through incremental change (Mahoney & Thelen 2010). Previous research has shown that the Health worker struggles to develop a distinct vocational identity. The Child care and youth worker fits in more smoothly alongside the pedagogues, but are at the same time levelled with the unskilled assistant group, competing for the same jobs (Høst 2002). Considering the relatively short tradition of VET in the municipal sector compared to other parts of working life, VET does not appear to be established as the normal entrance route into this part of the labour market (Hagen et al. 2008).
The municipal health care and child care sectors seen as societal sectors implies that the sectors exhibit vertical and centralised decision making structures with a number of decision making levels. Distinctions are made between different types of decisions (deciding sector objectives, the means in pursuing these objectives and funding decisions) and their distribution across units comprising the sector (decisions made at higher rather than lower levels, centralised or fragmented decision making and whether decisions are made independently at multiple levels) (Scott & Meyer 1991). Despite high degree of skill match, the decision whether to offer the apprentice graduate employment is not entirely the training establishment’s own to take. Decisions concerning funding and use of part time positions are made at a higher sectorial level and can make employment of apprentices after training impossible.

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