Last week was apprenticeship week – a good moment to talk about this ancient and modern form of training. When I was of school leaving age, plenty of my peers became apprentices. Carrying the tea can for four or five years was the way some of us saw it.

That all changed however. Apprentice training tailed off, with employers reluctant to commit to the time and responsibilities involved. More recently, there has been a renaissance. Approaches and attitudes to apprenticeships have been improving dramatically.

I know a young fellow who is having a hard time persuading his employer to offer him an apprenticeship. This is miserable, particularly bearing in mind that the Government is trying increase the number of apprenticeships. But my friend is 25 and his employer thinks this is too late to start apprentice training. How misguided!

I wonder if they have heard of the Adult Apprenticeship scheme that the Government began piloting back in 2005 and which has gone from strength to strength. These are for people of 25 + and whilst most of those taking advantage of them are still young by my definition, plenty of people in mid-life are joining in.

In fact, the number of seniors taking apprenticeships is mushrooming. Prior to 2007/2008 they were none existent, but in that year some 200 people over 45 completed Apprenticeship Frameworks. The academic year 2008/09 saw this number rise to 3,500 people with 200 of them over 60 years old.

Not a vast number, but “the end of the beginning” you could say.

Many older jobseekers may not want the commitment of a longer period of training but clearly there are others who are not put off. Some may relish the thought of a new challenge, starting a completely new career, learning something different.

For others it may simply be a pragmatic acceptance that old skills and former job roles are no longer marketable and if they want to work again, it is time to move on.

I met one older apprentice a couple of weeks ago. Graham Eggington from Wolverhampton turns 60 in March. He told me he despaired when he was made redundant from his job as a machine operator but after 14 months of unemployment he suddenly had two job offers – one as a van driver and one as an apprentice with British Gas. He chose the latter and hasn’t looked back.

Graham, then 57, joined a class consisting mainly of young men in their 20s. “I was like a dad to them!” he said.

I found myself reflecting on my own distant past as an FE teacher, trying vainly to inspire metal fabricating apprentices in liberal studies classes at West Ham College when Trevor Brooking, Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds and others were playing at home that evening. I could have done with Graham to calm things down.

Having left school many years before, Graham didn’t find it easy to return to learning, but managed it. He commented, “It does take a little longer when you get older but I would recommend it to anyone.”

One can imagine the breaks with tradition which older apprentices might bring; small chance of sending this callow youth on a fool’s errand for a box of sky hooks or size 14 holes!

But having apprentices who bring experience and knowledge from completely different walks of life, could add a novel new dimension and real value. Seemingly, British Gas and a number of other employers have realised this.

I see that this idea has been catching on elsewhere. In Australia, where my colleague and deputy, Keith Frost, is currently holidaying, at least one industry training provider makes the point, in its blurb on apprentices opportunities, that “Older employees can bring a maturity to a position that a young person just doesn’t have. However, you are never too old, or too young to apply.”

That, it seems to me is a formulation we should encourage.

Older people certainly don’t want to occupy all the training opportunities traditionally reserved for younger people. And nobody should take this implication from anything above. But the renaissance in attitudes towards apprenticeship training should surely include shedding anachronistic age barriers too.

In this day and age, with working longer the mantra of the moment, we must expect to see working lives spanning two or three careers. Change and learning throughout a work life have become necessary for individual as well as national prosperity.

Starting afresh on a new trade should be encouraged – yes, at any age!