Rsgaz away pull your wire , I got it wrong ok
Back in the day (showing mee age now!) .
Historically apprentices need not be paid.
The Journeyman or Master taught them their trade.
Agreements between employers and unions then often lead to most apprentices actually being paid a small sum.
When I left school if you did an apprenticeship you were on very low wages and your mates doing "easy jobs" got far more.
You did your 4 or 5 year apprenticeship and then became skilled and got a better wage than your mates.
Apprenticeship or not it was not at all uncommon for folk to leave one employer in the morning and get a different job with a different employer in the afternoon or next day.
Such was life.
You could legally leave school at 15 but "Grammar Schools" etc insisted you stayed on till 16 as part of your contract with the school. I never heard of anyone actually being sued for using their right to leave at 15 but. I imagine, that like in my school they took the view "If you wait that extra year as per your agreement then we will gladly give reports etc to future employers as to your school history and your achievements, if not we will simply say that you attended from one date to the other date!"
That extra year at school knowing I had the legal right to walk out forever with impunity felt great, the only time I actually enjoyed school and at the end I did eventually enforce my right. It was brill to tell the head I was leaving and to see his face drop when he asked if I was staying till the end of the week. I left at midday on a Tuesday and within 4 weeks began an apprenticeship. Brill