Today's Business World

Today’s business world is constantly changing and evolving hence the management discipline should respond to these changes in the business environment. There is a range of contemporary issues in the management discipline; however we will focus on youth transition to employment as the main contemporary issue where the government plays a significant role through its approved training initiatives inclusive of apprenticeships. School to work transition can be defined as the critical social economic life changing period between 15 to 24 years, when young people develop and build skills, based on their level of education and training. This period shapes their ability towards becoming more productive people in their societies. This period is faced with issues related to unemployment and inactivity, education and skills development, job search, occupation matches, labour market entry and segmentation, stable employment and adequate income. It is quite intricate to fully analyze this transition phase because a number of young people begin employment while in school, perform casual or unpaid work, migrate out of their communities or are easily discouraged from job searching. The transition from education to work for most young people can be very difficult. School to work transition lays its main emphasis on a lifelong learning. Apprenticeship can be taken to mean that a worker ends his/her formal education after a certain age, for example 16 in Europe, and starts working fulltime at a reduced pay in exchange for learning work skills for example automobiles assembling. In today's business world, the modern concept of internship could be viewed to be similar to an apprenticeship. However, people have different beliefs regarding this issue. Some argue that students who are not bound for college education should concentrate on career schools while academic students should spend their time in class learning various core academic subjects, for example history instead of job shadowing at an Auto dealer. Apprenticeships are regarded as a part of the formal education structure and young people normally enter after completing the compulsory education. They are inclusive of an employment relationship and formal schooling usually two days per week or even three depending on the agreement for three to four years. When the program ends, the apprentice graduates through a final examination where they are presented with a situation to prove their practical and theoretical skills of the occupation concerned (Hardoi I. 2005)

Dual systems on the other hand have proved to be quite successful in equipping young people with the necessary skills hence ensuring a good start in the labour market. The ability to avoid the difficulties experienced by young people is quite essential for the young people since this could have persistent negative effects on wage and employment probabilities later in life. These government programmes have a positive impact on youth and