21.1. Defining apprenticeships

In France, there is a specific legal status for apprenticeships. According to the Ministry of Labor, “apprenticeships are based on the principle of alternating between theoretical instruction in an apprenticeship training center (Centre de formation des apprentis – CFA) and vocational training with the employer with whom the apprentice assigns his contract”. Applied to the training of managers, it is assumed that management is a profession and that this profession can be learned through this type of combined education.

Historically, in English-speaking countries, apprenticeship systems have existed since the Middle Ages. Long used in vocational training¹, the more recent system requires the apprentice to be paid and considered an employee. Apprenticeship combines practical work in companies with educational training, which leads to a diploma from a recognized educational institution.

In both cases, modern apprenticeship combines work experience in the company with training in schools or training centers. The objective is to give the apprentice both experience and knowledge, with a diploma at the end, to prepare her for a job and a rewarding start to her career. The company’s objectives are to be able to hire talent economically, train talent upstream and develop the employer’s brand.

In both Japan as in England, the notion of an apprenticeship has historically existed in the form of shugyou². This applies more to learning a trade or profession, and consists of spending consecutive time with a “manager” for a long enough period of time to become operational and autonomous in a field. It is a system that has always existed, in professions as varied as carpentry or acting. In this traditional shugyou system, the manager is responsible for the apprentice’s moral development and the apprentice is not paid. A similar system can also be found in companies, where new managers who have just been recruited spend from a few months to a year in production and other basic operational positions to learn their company’s core business. For example, this means in customer service and at the sorting station at La Poste, in the factory for car manufacturers, or in the call center for telephone/Internet services. This type of internship is similar to compulsory operational internships that can be found in French Grande École schools.

More recently, internships have been set up in Japan that are similar to internships in third-year classes at a junior high school in France. These internships are organized together, are of short duration (half a day to five days) and aim to introduce the student to the world of work and business. The apprenticeship system implemented in France or England, based on a combination of concrete work and more theoretical training with clearly defined objectives, does not exist in Japan. In fact, in Japan, even the internship system for university students is relatively new; despite an increasing number of universities offering internships, the percentage of students benefiting from them remains low.

21.2. Internships in a company in Japan

As recently as 2017, there have been articles in the press on the phenomenon of internships. An article in the August 2017 issue of Newsweek Japan³ asked the following question: “What is the purpose of internships in companies?” For Japanese companies, this is a pertinent question; most of them offer short internships of less than one month, and internships of more than one month are considered as long-term commitments.

A 2016 government report on student career development in university-level education showed a steady increase in the number of universities offering internships to their students as part of their curriculum since 1996⁴. In 1996, 18% of universities offered internships. This figure increased to 59% in 2004 and to 74% in 2016⁵. Despite this increase, only 37% of schools actively promote internships to their students as a way to learn about the world of work, and thus as a tool for learning⁶. On the business side, another 2017 study⁷ shows that the percentage of Japanese companies offering internships to students is also increasing. According to this study, 55% of companies had offered internships in 2015, compared to 65% in 2017.

Internships are usually of short duration, ranging from a few days to a few weeks. Internships of more than one month are rare. Since the Japanese academic calendar has not been designed to accommodate long-term internships, students who want to work for a month or more do so more often during the summer holidays. Internships offered by companies in Japan can be classified into four categories: seminars and company presentations, teamwork with other interns on issues presented by the company, work in an operational position, and as an initial step in the process of recruitment⁸. Companies can organize the first two en masse at comparative low cost to sensitize students to the company’s culture, working conditions and atmosphere, as well as the company’s challenges. Working in an operational position is similar to an internship in France, where the student works and contributes as a collaborator for a minimum period of one month. This type of internship is rarer and considered to be costly in terms of resources for the company.

Hakuhodo offers a five-day summer internship that attracts 3,000 candidates for 60 places. Trainees spend the first three days at the company’s headquarters where they participate in seminars delivered by employees. These three days are followed by group work on a marketing project in the countryside for three days.

On the last day, they present their work and receive feedback from their tutors. It is an opportunity for the company to show its investment in the personal and professional development of its stakeholders.

In cases where internships are integrated into a university course, and there is therefore a combination of academic training and work in companies, the duration varies from a few days to a maximum of two weeks. For example, since 2018, Waseda University has been offering students a program called the Career Design Course. To validate this program, a student needs to take a few courses from a list of professional⁹ development courses for a total of four credits. In addition, there is a requirement to complete a 15-day internship. The courses offered cover leadership, marketing, work–life balance and business design. This type of program remains an elective, and it is not compulsory to complete an internship to obtain the final university degree.

Despite the constant increase in the number of internships offered, the study by the Ministry of Education (MEXT) shows that the percentage of students concerned remained around 20% in 2015¹⁰. Most of the students concerned did an internship as part of a credit awarded for the internship within their academic institution. A majority of students (63%) work part-time and have “small jobs” (called “arubaito” based on the German word “albeiter” – to work), working two to three days a week¹¹. These small jobs are not counted as internships.

Even with internships of short duration, one of the challenges for universities and students is to find companies that host interns¹². In a country where the recruitment of young graduates is highly regulated, internships are not a means of identifying talent in advance of hiring. For example, the job search start date for the graduate promotion in spring 2018 is June of the previous year, and the selection process officially begins in August; these dates are determined by the Keidanren (Federation of Japanese Economic Organizations)¹³ for all its member organizations. This regulatory context constitutes a strong obstacle for companies wishing to invest their resources in internships and prevents them from taking advantage of it to carry out an initial screening of potential candidates before recruitment.

21.3. Analysis of the situation in Japan

There is no doubt that the initiatives for the professional development of students in Japanese universities are less developed than in Europe. In particular, the comparison of apprenticeship and internship systems shows that companies are less open in Japan, and that they prefer to organize short-term mass presentation internships’ rather than give work to students and benefit from their workforce. While internships lasting several consecutive months exist, they are more difficult to find and are perceived by companies as more of a cost than an investment.

To understand this situation, we must look at the culture of Japanese companies in which the remnants of lifetime employment are still present. At the same time as internships provide an overview of the inside workings of the company, firms control the content and show only certain aspects to students. There is a clear separation between “stakeholders” and “visitors”, or in other words “insiders” and “outsiders”, which remains a difficult hurdle to overcome as an intern “outsider”. Although internships are conceived to ensure that students’ expectations match the company’s realities, the way in which internships are approached by the majority of firms leads them to miss the objective. This characteristic may be understood as a manifestation of the country’s “collectivist”¹⁴ culture more generally. The distinction between “insiders” and “outsiders” must be maintained, through mistrust of “outsiders” – i.e. trainees – who are not closely linked to the company by longterm contracts, and who can be a source of destabilization.

Another cultural characteristic that manifests itself in the internship system in Japan is that of regulation¹⁵. Companies and universities are under the control of ministries and other institutions such as Keidanren. Academic programs, as well as recruiters, are subject to a schedule that must be respected by all. This coordination at the national level makes it easier to organize the flow of students for universities and also for companies during the recruitment period, and it further illustrates the collectivist nature of the recruitment process. On the same day, at the same time, all the young graduates, dressed in similar attire, invade the public transport system and the public thoroughfares to attend their recruitment interviews. This ritualized system constrains any flexibility in the flow of students between university and business, and vice versa.

Since 1996, internships have been promoted by the Ministry of Labor, and there has been a clear shift among universities aiming to increasingly integrate this learning system in a systematic and institutional way. The formats of the internships are also changing. While the majority of internships remain short and more promotional than anything else, other longer and more practical forms have also emerged. More recently, some universities have begun to integrate internships into a learning process where practical internships are offered in conjunctions with management courses. Internships are increasingly valued by universities and companies are beginning to become interested in them as well. The objectives of the internships are better defined for students – consolidation of theoretical and practical learning, better knowledge of oneself and one’s preferences, development of interest in sectors of professional activity; and for companies – better knowledge of the company, development of the employer brand, development of young talent, new perspectives on business issues.

21.4. Conclusion

For the time being, the apprenticeship system we know in France does not exist in Japan. However, there has been a recent shift in the importance of internships for students and recent graduates in Japan. Comparisons with Western systems, and with the American system in particular, are very common. We can observe the emergence of a Japanese model of internships, which combines the cultural characteristics of Japanese institutions, collectivism and the importance of formal frameworks, with the learning objectives found in apprenticeships.

Chapter written by Junko TAKAGI.