Short answer. Article 57 states the Labor Code's apprenticeship program exists to meet the economy's need for trained manpower, build a national apprenticeship program involving employers, workers, and government and non-government agencies, and set apprenticeship standards that protect apprentices from exploitation during their training period.
What the law says
To help meet the demand of the economy for trained manpower
Labor Code, Article 57 — Objectives Of Apprenticeship. Read the full provision →
What the law says
To establish apprenticeship standards for the protection of apprentices.
Labor Code, Article 57 — Objectives Of Apprenticeship. Read the full provision →
Three goals in one provision
Article 57 opens the Labor Code's chapter on apprenticeship by spelling out why the chapter exists at all, rather than leaving readers to infer its purpose from scattered rules. It lists three aims side by side: supplying the economy with workers who have real, trained skills; building a national apprenticeship program that brings employers, workers, and both government and non-government agencies to the table together; and writing apprenticeship standards specifically to protect the apprentices who go through the program. Every later provision in this title is meant to trace back to one of these three stated goals.
Meeting the economy's need for trained workers
The first goal treats apprenticeship as a workforce-development tool rather than a favor extended to young workers. Businesses often need employees with specific trade skills that ordinary schooling does not fully provide, so structured on-the-job training under a supervising employer fills that gap while still counting toward a worker's formal skill record and future employability. Framing the program this way ties it to the economy's actual labor demand rather than to a fixed curriculum, letting the mix of trades taught expand or shift as industries change.
Employers, workers, and agencies working together
The second goal is about shared responsibility rather than one-sided control. No single actor runs an apprenticeship program alone under this framework. Employers provide the workplace, tools, and supervision; workers commit their time and effort to learning a trade; and government together with non-government agencies design the standards and oversee compliance, so the system depends on cooperation among all three rather than any one party dictating the terms.
Protecting apprentices from being used as cheap labor
The third goal exists because an apprentice is not yet a fully qualified worker and can be vulnerable to being used as cheap substitute labor instead of being genuinely trained. By naming apprentice protection as an explicit objective, this article gives every later rule on apprentice wages, training duration, and registration a clear purpose to serve: shielding trainees from exploitation, not simply filling an employer's staffing needs at reduced cost.
Where this fits in the wider Labor Code
Article 57 sits within Book II of the Labor Code, the part dealing with human resources development rather than day-to-day wage and hour disputes. Because it states objectives rather than granting specific enforceable rights on its own, it works best as an interpretive anchor. When a question arises over how a particular apprenticeship standard should be applied in practice, these three stated aims are the touchstone for what the rule was ultimately meant to accomplish. Readers comparing this article to the detailed rules that follow it, on apprenticeship agreements, wage rates, and registration requirements, should treat those later provisions as the mechanics for carrying out the three goals stated here, not as a separate or competing set of aims.
Related provisions
- Labor Code, Article 57 — Objectives Of Apprenticeship
- Labor Code, Article 58 — Apprenticeship Terms Defined