Hasherucf... this has not been my experience.
I have had a few dozen apprentices over the years (both under traditional block release/TAFE and newer 1 year pre-vocational system) and most have gone on to be excellent engineers. To me though under the old traditional 4 year system there was a higher drop out rate and took years longer to get licenced, and for the first year pretty useless beyond removing panels and lunch orders.
Personally I have found the kids trained under the new system are way in front and far more useful from day one, plus they get licenced far quicker. I have heard all the BS about being just taught only theory and it is that BS... the apprentices we have seen from the pre-vocational system have all had good basic practical skills and a good attitude.
We are looking to put on another apprentice shortly and will probably go with kids from ATAE or CASC, they seem to do a pretty good job and filter out the duds.