The challenge of comparing apprenticeship completion rates: an international review of terminology

When considering construction apprenticeship ‘success’, two general categories can be distinguished, namely completion and non-completion. However international comparisons cannot be effectively established because of the differing terminology and definitions used by various researchers. Comparative investigations face challenges due to social and educational disparities, making direct evaluations misleading or ineffective. The aim of this paper is to communicate how different countries define ‘completion’ and ‘completion rates', to find common ground between the definitions and recommend consistent terms for use in further Irish research. Research papers from five countries were selected: - Ireland, United Kingdom. United States of America, Australia, and Germany to analyse and compare completion terminology. The literature confirms a lack of consensus on the terminology as well as differing methodology for calculating completion rate. There is limited research on apprenticeship completion in Ireland and as such the key contribution will be utilising this research to create a definition of apprenticeship completion and completion rates for Ireland to make comparisons internationally with the eventual hope of increasing apprenticeship success in this country.