APPRENTICES AND LEARNERS

• What are the distinctions between learnership and apprenticeship?

The following are the distinctions:
1. Practical training. Both learnership and apprenticeship involve practical training on-the-job.
2. Training agreement. Learnership is governed by a learnership agreement; while apprenticeship is
governed by an apprenticeship agreement.
2. Occupation. Learnership involves learnable occupations consisting of semi-skilled and other industrial
occupations which are non-apprenticeable; while apprenticeship concerns apprenticeable occupations
or any trade, form of employment or occupation approved for apprenticeship by the DOLE Secretary.
3. Theoretical instructions. Learnership may or may not be supplemented by related theoretical
instructions; while apprenticeship should always be supplemented by related theoretical instructions.
4. Ratio of theoretical instructions and on-the-job training. For both learnership and apprenticeship, the
normal ratio is one hundred (100) hours of theoretical instructions for every two thousand (2,000) hours of
practical or on-the-job training. Theoretical instruction time for occupations requiring less than two thousand
(2,000) hours for proficiency should be computed on the basis of such ratio.
5. Competency-based system. Unlike in apprenticeship, it is required in learnership that it be implemented
based on the TESDA-approved competency-based system.
6. Duration of training. Learnership involves practical training on the job for a period not exceeding
three (3) months; while apprenticeship requires for proficiency, more than three (3) months but not
over six (6) months of practical training on the job.
7. Qualifications. The law does not expressly mention any qualifications for learners; while the following
qualifications are required to be met by apprentices under Article 59 of the Labor Code:
(a) Be at least fourteen (14) years of age;
(b) Possess vocational aptitude and capacity for appropriate tests; and
(c) Possess the ability to comprehend and follow oral and written instructions.
CONFLICT IN THE AGE REQUIREMENT FOR APPRENTICES:
Under the Labor Code as stated above – 14 years of age
Under the Labor Code’s Implementing Rules – “Be at least 15 years of age, provided those who are at
least 15 years of age but less than 18 may be eligible for apprenticeship only in non-hazardous
occupations.”
CONFLICT, HOW RESOLVED:
It should be 15 years of age but the more appropriate basis is not the Labor Code’s Implementing Rules
(which cannot amend the Labor Code) but another law, R.A. No. 9231, (“AN ACT PROVIDING FOR
THE ELIMINATION OF THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR AND AFFORDING
STRONGER PROTECTION FOR THE WORKING CHILD“) where it is provided that:
(1) All persons under eighteen (18) years of age shall be considered as a “child”; and
(2) Children below fifteen (15) years of age shall not be employed EXCEPT if he/she falls under any
of the exceptions mentioned and enumerated in the law.
8. Circumstances justifying hiring of trainees. Unlike in apprenticeship, in learnership, the law, Article 74
of the Labor Code, expressly prescribes the pre-requisites before learners may be validly employed, to
wit:
(a) When no experienced workers are available;
(b) The employment of learners is necessary to prevent curtailment of employment opportunities; and
(c) The employment does not create unfair competition in terms of labor costs or impair or lower
working standards.
9. Limitation on the number of trainees. In learnership, a participating enterprise is allowed to take in
learners only up to a maximum of twenty percent (20%) of its total regular workforce. No similar cap is
imposed in the case of apprenticeship.
10. Option to employ. In learnership, the enterprise is obliged to hire the learner after the lapse of the
learnership period; while in apprenticeship, the enterprise is given only an “option” to hire the
apprentice as an employee.
11. Wage rate. The wage rate of a learner or an apprentice is set at seventy-five percent (75%) of the
statutory minimum wage.