Abstract: In the process of the modernization of apprenticeship in Germany, the governance model of social market lays the good foundation for the apprenticeship. For apprenticeship, its effective work depends on the industrial community and decommodification process. The establishment of these institutions can be traced back to the period of the industrial revolution. The patriarchal regulation of guild and the industrial democracy played a role in the process of change, which could solve the credible commitment problem in the skill formation. These factors keep the apprenticeship working in many enterprise of German, and because of this kind of skill formation system, German manufacturing industry has achieved a great success in the global market. Therefore, the skill formation system has become the key part of the institution package, which is called comparative institutional advantage of Germany. The conflicts between the stakeholders have shaped the evolution trajectory of the apprenticeship. In this sense, the process of skill formation is socially constructed. More attention from academia, especially from the fields of economy sociology and social policy should be paid to the study of the apprenticeship system, as it will shed new lights on the research about economic development and social protection in China.

Key words: industrial democracy , decommodification,  ,  , apprenticeship ,  , social market