Apprenticeships Help Close the Skills Gap. So Why Are They in Decline?

One issue is that it's not really possible to form long term employment contracts that are legally defensible. Only executives seem to get these kinds of packages. What this means is that employers are unwilling to invest in long term training. They either dumb down the work to make use of a fungible mass of proletarians or encourage workers to train themselves and get promotions through job hopping every 18 months.

It's mad, and the workarounds are no longer sufficient. There is an alternative that does not require unionization that the western world used for > 2,000 years. The ancients had technology and engineering also, but not much ability to use fossil fuels. They were not idiots. The skilled trade system of antiquity may have been harsh, it may have reduced individual autonomy, but it has a track record of success.

>Some companies also fear that employees will leave for better-paying jobs almost as soon as they've learned their required skills. For them, an apprenticeship amounts to training workers for other companies.

Yes. It is unless penalties for breaking the contract can be enforced.