Editing German model (section)

== History ==
In 1869, legislation liberalized apprenticeship training, removing restrictions on who could take on apprentices.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Thelen |first=Kathleen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0afDJGPczwC |title=How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-54674-4 |pages=42–44 |language=en}}</ref> In 1881, 1884 and 1887, legislation tightened the restrictions.<ref name=":0" />

A law passed in 1897, the Handicraft Protection Law, stabilized a plant-based apprenticeship system in German industry. The law set limits on the number of apprentices a firm could take on and introduced a monitoring system for the quality of training.<ref name=":0" /> According to [[Kathleen Thelen]], this law played an essential role in cementing what would become the German model.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thelen |first=Kathleen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0afDJGPczwC |title=How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-54674-4 |language=en}}</ref> The 1897 law was the result of bargaining between the state and the artisanal sector, which had a supportive relationship.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Thelen |first=Kathleen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0afDJGPczwC |title=How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-54674-4 |pages=39–41 |language=en}}</ref> Organized labor had a minimal impact on the legislation and the social democrats opposed the legislation due to suspicion of the traditional artisanal sector.<ref name=":1" /> Thelen writes that the impetus for the legislation was "deeply political and mostly illiberal."<ref name=":0" />

Over time, the social democrats were incentivized not to dismantle the system established by the law, as labor unions became increasingly filled with skilled workers trained under the apprenticeship system.<ref name=":1" /> In the Weimar Republic, German unions had become advocates of the in-plant training system.<ref name=":1" /> Gradual changes were made to the vocational training system in the 20th century.<ref name=":0" />