Comparing Apprenticeship Programs

I attended my local Ruby Brigade on Monday and listened to Chris Hicks talk about sneaking Ruby into a Fortune 500 company. It was an interesting talk and I was impressed by Chris's ability to learn Ruby (his first programming language) over the course of a few months, and then present his experiences to a bunch of experienced Rubyists.  Afterward, a bunch of us grabbed some beers at a local pub and I had the pleasure of talking to Paul Pagel of 8th Light about apprenticeship.  Paul recently started mentoring an apprentice, so we had a lot to talk about.

I've thought about our conversation ever since and the different approaches that Obtiva and 8th Light are taking with their apprenticeship programs.

Obtiva hires apprentices into our Software Studio where apprentices are somewhat insulated from our clients and therefore have a relatively safe environment for learning.  The apprentices aren't assigned to a specific mentor, it's the Software Studio team's responsibility to ensure that apprentices are making progress and getting enough mentoring.  Sometimes we've failed to ensure that this happens as we balance client needs and team growth and the correct ratio of apprentices to more senior developers.

8th Light hires apprentices and attaches that apprentice to a mentor.  The apprentice shadows that mentor every day.  The mentor is responsible for finding and hiring the apprentice.  It's a more traditional approach to apprenticeship, and I assume that it's done in the context of on-site consulting work rather than in a remote environment like Obtiva's Software Studio.

It occurred to me this morning that while there are some business reasons for our different approaches, there is also some biographical reasons: my apprenticeship was less traditional than Paul's.  When I first met Paul, he was an intern at Object Mentor, a company led by Bob Martin, a long-time proponent of software craftsmanship.  Paul went on to work for Object Mentor and then moved onto 8th Light.  I, on the other hand, had a much bumpier (and perhaps typical) journey through several different companies, none of which emphasized apprenticeship.  I had to create my own apprenticeship in less than ideal circumstances (which is really what this book is all about).  My hope for Obtiva's apprentices is that they find themselves in much more ideal circumstances: within a culture of learning, a place to be mentored, and a place to stretch your skills.  Yet Obtiva's approach is closer to my own apprenticeship experience than Paul's.  At Obtiva, the quality of one's apprenticeship is largely in the hands of the apprentice, who will hopefully apply the Apprenticeship Patterns to maximize their experience.  Perhaps that's true of apprentices at 8th Light as well, though with a more traditional apprenticeship it would be easier to put the responsibility on the mentor.

I'll be interested to watch both Obtiva's and 8th Light's apprenticeship programs evolve in the coming years.  I'd like to see Obtiva's program take some steps toward becoming more traditional.