About_nav_pic

Case Studies

Thompson Automotive Labs

We created a program that when used with an oscillioscope detects inefficient combustion.

"Not only did Rolemodel create this software, but through RoleModel Community, was also able to work with a business consultant, graphic and web designer. It was very nice to have all these options at one place!" 

- John Thompson

Apprenticeship

TOPICS ON THIS PAGE:
Goals | Types of Apprenticeship | Apprenticeship Background | What Apprenticeship Is and Isn't

"A mentor is someone whose hindsight and insight can become foresight."
- Author Unknown

When Jesus Christ walked the earth, He could have chosen whatever teaching methodology he wished. You would think, being God, He would choose the best. He could certainly have built a school (He was a carpenter/builder), but He didn't. He could have sped up the creation/adoption of the Internet and created an incredible on-line learning environment, but He didn't. He chose discipleship. He poured his life into twelve men as He went about His business. Certainly He did some public teaching and a lot of things that benefited the masses, but none can argue that the ones who learned the most were those who followed Him. Actually, from Genesis through Revelation we see this pattern repeated. Fathers being commanded to disciple their children (and disasters when they did not). Moses discipling Joshua. Elijah discipling Elisha. Paul discipling Timothy. The way we look at it, if that's the training model God chose, why should we think we can improve on it?

RoleModel Software is focused on effective development. As we build software, we build software development teams, both our own and those of our clients. We're constantly building the team that will help us realize our vision for 2012.

We view apprenticeship as an important part of that process.

We began our focused efforts on apprenticeship in 1998. Our ideas on apprenticeship have grown over time (more background information). Apprenticeship at RoleModel has been extremely successful so far, exceeding what we thought were aggressive expectations, in spite of the things we were naive about when we started. As we've continued to learn and improve how we do things, we can't help but get excited about the results we'll see in the future. Many of our original apprentices are now full-fledged and wonderfully effective software developers, although they never stop learning and growing. We are often looking for new apprentices.

The ideal candidate will have excellent character, proficiency in their use of a computer, and an understanding of the mechanics of the field they wish to pursue (e.g. programming in an object-oriented programming language if looking to go into the area of software development). The first two are the most important, along with a desire to serve as a part of the team as they learn and grow while applying their God-given gifts and talents as He would intend. We therefore offer several types and stages of apprenticeship.

These plans will be revised with constant course corrections as the Lord reveals His plans (Prov. 3:5-6) and as we adapt to the individuals and the changing/growing business.

Goals

There are unique goals for each type of apprenticeship, but they have some in common:

  • Introduce people who think they "want to do something with computers or business" to people who are in the business.
  • Match motivated people's natural bents and desires with a position where they can grow and thrive.
  • Providing education and/or gainful employment in a healthy environment in which both the master(s) and apprentice(s) can grow and benefit.
  • Help us get closer to our vision for 2012.

Back to Top

Types of Apprenticeship

Although we do not always have openings that match your particular interest, we are almost always seeking at least one of several types of apprentices. As we present each of them, keep in mind the distinction we are making between the apprenticeship stages:

Apprentice – The person contributes very little from a perspective of being able to think like a professional. They are mostly absorbing like a sponge. By the end of the apprenticeship, they can do small, less challenging tasks competently without supervision.

Intern – The person starts to contribute and can be a minor part of a team. However, they need a lot of help because, although they can come up with their own approaches to a problem that seem smart to them, they are usually very naïve and frought with danger. By the end of this phase, they are less naïve and are competent at approaching a small set of problems on their own.

Resident – The person can be part of a team and start coming up with competent approaches to problems, but needs to be given a short leash before his work gets reviewed. By the end of this phase, they are basically a competent contributor of any team and may be able to lead simple projects.

Participants in this program pay for the education they are receiving based on the apprenticeship model we've developed. This can be paid for in terms of dollars or services or a combination that is negotiated on an individual basis and reviewed regularly (typically quarterly).

The primary purpose of the apprenticeship is to provide a more effective means to attain the skills necessary to consistently provide a "professional" level of service and recieve gainful employment (and employability) for that service. At the end of an apprenticeship, if business conditions permit, the previous apprentice will be a full-fledged team member in the RoleModel Community.

The following are the types of apprenticeship we offer and are actively seeking:

  • Business Operations. Young men who desire the opportunity to learn about all of the operational aspects of a unique small business community in an environment where they'll learn by doing before choosing a particular aspect on which to focus.

  • Software Development. We believe that RoleModel Software offers the most effective approach to becoming a software developer found anywhere.

  • Video Production. Young men who desire to use the medium of video to convey stories of life will participate in a variety of projects from short promos to training communications to short films at various stages of the product.

  • Written Communications. Young men who excel in the area of written communication will be able to apply and hone their skills in a variety of areas of technical writing as well as marketing messages in various forms.

  • Web/Graphics Design. Artistically inclined young men who are interested in exploring a career in web design and/or graphics design will be involved in a variety of projects as they learn the craft.

  • Information Technology. Young men who are interested in exploring a career in computer system/network/facilities administration will be able to learn in a real world environment what it takes to keep things up and running as well as stay on top of evolving needs.


Will you always be working next to someone who is in the top of their field?  No, sometimes you'll be working with other apprentices and people who are just a little ahead of you.  You will be supervised by people who are professionals, and very accomplished ones, who have a variety of skills and have the wisdom to know how to use it to serve real people's needs.

You will be learning in an environment where 

  • professional tools are accessible
  • business mentoring is provided
  • business contacts can be initiated,
  • self-study can be applied to several real world projects
  • a portfolio can begin to be developed.
  • you'll be serving other people

If you feel you are interested in any of these, you may want to consider the following:

If you would like to explore apprenticeship at RoleModel please include the following with your inquiry to apprenticeship@rolemodelsoftware.com:

    Back to Top

    Apprenticeship Background

    The following is Ken's description of how we got started with apprenticeship...

    There has been a whole lot of experiences and Scripture that God has placed in my life to question whether the way we train people in our culture is in line with God's best. In the last few years, He has been continually pointing me to the concept of apprenticeship as a model for training people. I believe that when we, as a society, abandoned the traditional way of life that existed before the industrial revolution, we turned our back on a lot of things that we should not have. I certainly don't believe we should all go back to being farmers. Although I love open spaces and working the land to a point, I'd rather build software.

    Our culture:

    • encourages fathers to spend the majority of their time away from their family
    • encourages mothers to spend the majority of their time away from their family
    • encourages us to send children to people we don't know to be educated in an environment influenced by peers, many of whom have no cohesive family unit
    • encourages us to ignore spiritual training or often, at best, encourages a once a week short program sponsored by some religious institution
    • encourages children to focus on personal pleasure instead of contributing to the economy of the family until they are 18, 22, or beyond...
    • encourages us to spend tens of thousands of dollars to send them to college to be trained by more people we don't know in an environment that is typically as void of any moral restraint as anywhere on earth.

    When we examine the hurdles this system places upon young people to becoming productive, solid citizens and wonderful men and women of God, it is amazing to me that we are not worse off. I can personally attest that it is only by God's grace that the path of my life isn't strewn with all of the worst results of problems we see in our society today. (Of course, I still have to rely on His grace daily as I live in this earthly flesh).

    We are called to raise up our children in the way they should go (or according to their bent) (Prov 22:6), and teach our children diligently (Deut. 6:4-7). No matter how you choose to overcome the above mentioned obstacles, the call is the same.

    As I've seen and gotten to know more and more homeschoolers, and study the Bible and other sources of history, I have become more impressed with the reality that the average 13-25 year old I meet would be a lot more impressive if we avoided these hurdles listed above. There are plenty of other hurdles that are more rewarding to jump. Certainly I'm not saying that all children kept from all of this will end up being pillars of the church, community and society. Nor am I saying that there is no hope for people who have grown up with all of these obstacles raised high in front of them. But I do believe that by taking the warnings and exhortations of Scripture seriously, and challenging the status quo, we can greatly increase the number of pillars we are producing. (But attempting this offers its own hurdles).

    I illustrate this with a story I've told many people of something I witnessed at the 1998 NCHE (North Carolinians for Home Education) Conference:

    As I was waiting in line to purchase a book at the Lifetime Books booth, I noticed that the booth (a fairly large one... maybe 40-50' x 10-12') had as its cashier a young man, probably about 13 years old give or take a couple of years. I happened to recognize a name tag which advertised him as Eric Farewell. That indicated to me that he was the son of the proprietor of Lifetime Books, Bob Farewell, who I had become familiar with in previous years at the conference as an excellent speaker on the benefits of homeschooling and the father's role in homeschooling. I was probably the 3rd or 4th in line at the time, when it happened. A break in the teaching tracks produced a deluge of customers and the length of the line began to steadily grow. I thought to myself, "this poor kid".

    As the line began to grow, I witnessed the young Master Farewell handle a problem with the current customer:

    "I'm sorry, this is the sample copy of this book. Was it the last copy?"

    The customer replied in the affirmative.

    "I'm sorry, I cannot let you have this copy as we need to have it for the display for other customers. I can take your order for it and have it shipped to you as soon as we get back from the conference. Or... Are you going to be here until the end of the day? If you are, I can sell you this copy now and hold it for you. You can pick it up at the end of the day as we're closing up."

    Needless to say, I was extremely impressed at the approach of this young man to the dilemma with which he was faced and thought how many retail or fast food outlets could use a young man like this. But this was only the beginning.

    As the young man was quickly but calmly taking care of this customer, I noticed that he was not alone in the booth. His sister, Elizabeth, probably 15 or so had been straightening up the book displays and had recognized the growing line at the checkout counter. She gracefully wandered over to the cash register. She exchanged a few calm, quiet words with her brother that I could not make out. In a matter of seconds, she had taken over at the cash register while her brother had taken out a book of receipts and proceeded toward the middle of the line of customers with an announcement.

    "Is there anyone in line who would like to pay cash for your purchases? If so, I can take you here, write up a receipt and check you out quickly."

    As he proceeded to do this, he was interrupted with a question from a potential customer looking for a particular book. He calmly asked his sister whether she knew anything about it. While she gave him the accurate answer, neither one of them missed a beat in checking out their current customers.

    I can't think of a fast food chain I've been to in recent years that was run half as well with regards to efficiency and courtesy with several times the staff and one or two "adult" managers overseeing the entire operation. Yet no Bob Farewell, or any other "responsible adult" was anywhere to be found.

    This is the kind of thing that continues to inspire me to homeschool our children and continues to make me believe that I need to reprogram my own views of education.

    Over the past several years, I've heard an abundance of stories about people doing equally impressive things (e.g. passing the bar exam) without going to college. I've worked with many people without a college degree who are in the top ten percent of programmers. And I've met people of amazing intelligence and character who are very successful in life that never stepped foot in a college. And, of course, there are those people who did go to college but are outstanding in their field in a particular area that had little to nothing to do with their major. There seems to be a single thread running through all of these success stories: one or more mentors whom these people studied under that taught and inspired them to rise above what they saw around them. I can't ever recall meeting a "pillar of the church, community and society" that did not also have mentors that inspired them in some way.

    Where do we find these mentors? Do we have to go through college to meet them?

    I've been mentored and have mentored many people in my career. These are, by far, the fondest memories of my career. Due to my views on training, views on life, personal convictions, and attraction to high-risk/high-reward activities, we've started down this path.

    In early 1998, I had begun to set forth a plan, which included some experiments. As I began to roll out the plan and examined the results of the experiments, I started being convicted that I needed an employee/apprentice sooner rather than later. Within days, the Lord introduced me to a young man (Nathaniel Talbott) whom, to make a long story short, became our first Software Apprentice in December 1998. He brought his own vision of apprenticeship. As we have talked and lived through his apprenticeships and others, plans have been continually revised.

    Back to Top

    What Apprenticeship Is and Isn't

    We view apprenticeship as the traditional model applied to a new field.

    The traditional model involves someone who is at the peak of his craft (the master) bringing one or more people with little or no knowledge (the apprentices) up to the level of master themselves. The apprentice doesn't start off by making masterpieces. Rather, he begins by (figuratively) sweeping the floor, and doing other mundane things for the master, all the while observing the master as he plies his trade. Over time, though, he begins to apply the things he has observed in addition to the things he has learned by doing small, ordinary projects under the master's supervision. He progresses until he, too, is a master, able to open his own shop and bring in his own apprentices.

    The work of the master is to recognize the limitations of his apprentice, and help him to overcome them. The responsibility of the apprentice is to trust the master, and accept any task, no matter how unimportant it seems, and put his whole heart into it. Two key things give apprenticeship its significant edge over the classroom in teaching wisdom.

    First is the constant exposure it gives the apprentice to real problems. The primary focus of a master while apprenticing is still to ply his trade, so he doesn't have time to design toy projects for the apprentice to work on. Rather, he finds tasks with real value that the apprentice can help to accomplish. The apprentice has the benefit of learning about how all the different parts of the trade work together. The master has his workload lightened so that he can focus more time on the continued growth of the apprentice while being freed to tackle more challenging problems.

    The second advantage apprenticeship enjoys over the classroom is the ability of the apprentice to observe the master on a regular basis [Alistair Cockburn "The costs and benefits of pair programming," particularly the section "Expert in Earshot." 2000]. There are two basic methods of learning: making a mistake and learning from it, or watching someone else avoid the mistake, and learning from it. The latter is usually much less painful and time-consuming than the former. That is not to say an apprentice will never make his own mistakes; yet, even then, the master will be able to impart the proper solution, and reinforce the lesson learned.

    So apprenticeship is:

    • An alternative education path to more institutional approaches like college.
    • An entry level job with a long-term focus
    • A give and take relationship where both the master(s) and apprentice(s) benefit
    • Customized to the needs of the master and the ability of the apprentice
    • Hard work
    • Highly interactive
    • Extremely dynamic

    Apprenticeship is not:

    • A class
    • Something that can be done remotely
    • Something with a clear end

    Back to Top

Footer_column ©2006-2009 RoleModel Software, Inc