This paper contributes to the literature on non-monetary benefits of Vocational Education and Training (VET) by investigating its influence on a firm’s innovation process. While an increasing number of studies finds positive effects of VET on innovation in firms, the role that apprentices play in this mechanism has largely been unexplored. To analyze this role, we use the distinction between technological and organizational innovation, two complementary forms of innovation. When investigating the initiators of organizational innovation, to date, research has primarily focused on internal and external change agents at upper echelons. We conceptualize apprentices as hybrid (a combination of internal and external) change agents at lower echelons. We examine how apprentices in the Swiss VET system are key to integrating external knowledge (through school-based education) with internal knowledge (through on-the-job training) and moderating the influence of organizational innovation on technological innovation. Drawing on a sample of 1240 firms from a representative Swiss Innovation Survey, we show that apprentices leverage the positive association between innovations in a firm’s business processes and organization of work with incremental innovations. With the description of a new mechanism that shows the significant role of apprentices on firms’ technological innovation activities and evidence for supportive associations between key variables, we contribute to the understanding of the influence of VET on innovation in firms.

本文通过研究其对企业创新过程的影响，为有关职业教育和培训（VET）的非货币利益的文献做出了贡献。尽管越来越多的研究发现职业教育与培训对企业创新具有积极作用，但学徒在该机制中的作用在很大程度上尚未得到探索。为了分析这种作用，我们使用技术和组织创新之间的区别，这是两种互补的创新形式。迄今为止，在调查组织创新的发起者时，研究主要集中在高层的内部和外部变革推动者。我们将学徒概念化为较低层级的混合（内部和外部组合）变革推动者。我们研究了瑞士VET系统中的学徒如何将外部知识（通过基于学校的教育）与内部知识（通过在职培训）整合以及减轻组织创新对技术创新的影响的关键。我们从具有代表性的瑞士创新调查中抽取了1240家公司的样本，显示出学徒利用公司业务流程中的创新与增量创新的工作组织之间的积极联系。通过描述一种新机制来说明学徒在企业技术创新活动中的重要作用以及关键变量之间的支持性关联的证据，我们有助于理解职业教育与培训对企业创新的影响。