Making apprenticeships happen

Tony Blair famously spoke of his focus on ‘education, education, education’. For the Tory-led Government, in the face of a recession made in Downing Street, Ministers seek to boast of ‘apprenticeships, apprenticeships, apprenticeships’. Sadly though, this rhetoric is not matched by reality.

This runs in direct contrast to the record of the previous Labour government that lifted the system from its knees in 1997 from only 70,000 apprenticeships countrywide to over a quarter of a million when we left office in 2010, along the way setting up a dedicated National Apprenticeship Service, National Apprenticeship Week and a wholesale revaluing of vocational routes, qualifications and credentials.

Ministers have endeavoured to talk the talk, but they’ve found walking the walk difficult, particularly on the numbers of young people starting apprenticeships, and boosting apprenticeships at small and medium sized businesses (SMEs).

Last year, BIS Minister John Hayes poetically greeted the publication of apprenticeship statistics as “a rosy day for Britain” and dismissed his critics as “carpers and the cringers, the whiners and the whingers”, but recently it has emerged that the number of young people starting apprenticeships has fallen in a third of England’s regions. The vast majority of new apprenticeships have fallen in the over 25s category; given that this has coincided with the government’s abolition of Train to Gain, previously the typical route for work training in this age group, there are real concerns that any increases have derived simply from a re-badging exercise.

Crucially, we need to do more to help and encourage small and medium sized businesses to take on apprentices. As an MP for a town whose small businesses are a key part of reviving and regenerating our local economy in Blackpool, I know they have a central role to play across the country in kick starting growth as well as having the potential to offer tens of thousands of would-be-apprentices – both younger and older – that crucial step up the ladder. Taking on an apprentice can be a fantastic experience for small businesses, so it is important that they are made aware of the benefits and how apprenticeships can work for small businesses as well as large.

So I welcomed the government’s decision to commission Jason Holt, who has a strong experience and track record of involvement with SMEs and training for young people, to report on how we make more apprenticeships accessible to small and medium sized businesses. His report, published this week, is a valuable wake-up call to the Government to put in place new measures to help SMEs take on apprentices. With over 1 million unemployed young people and the fall in young people starting apprenticeships in many parts of the country, ministers need to act.

Jason Holt’s recommendations strongly echo Labour’s plan to boost SME apprenticeships which I outlined earlier this year in Blackburn on a visit to a Group Training Agency there, which helps small firms work together to provide apprenticeships. For example, he backs expanding the role of Group Training Associations, which we called for: Holt argues that ‘there is a role for Government to provide pump-priming for establishment of providers’ such as GTAs, ‘playing an important role for SMEs in all sectors’.

The report also echoes our call for Local Enterprise Partnerships, as well as professional and business groups, to be given a greater role in promoting apprenticeships, including in schools, colleges and within the curriculum. Labour has said we would foster best practice whereby small and larger firms buddy up to increase apprenticeship opportunities, including within supply chains. To boost this process, we need to encourage Apprenticeship Training Associations: not for profit organisations which directly employ and manage individuals undertaking apprenticeships, coordinating training activity and acting as brokers to set them up with employers.

The government’s Growth and Innovation Fund, which was set up to boost investment in training, apprenticeships and to support regional growth, has been underutilised by the government. Labour has called on the government to make sure this vital funding does not lie dormant and instead is used to boost apprenticeships and encourage the collaboration we need to see.

The Government should be using its power as a consumer to expand apprenticeships – rewarding companies who offer apprenticeships on significant contracts, over the value of £1 million. This is the approach we adopted in government, including with the construction of the Olympic Park.

Ministers should be leading by example, with far more apprentices in Government departments and in Parliament, as my colleague Andrew Adonis has been campaigning for. Instead, we have seen the number of apprentices falling by two thirds at BIS, which is supposed to be the department promoting them. And local Government can do its bit too, even with reduced budgets for procurement – it’s encouraging to see Labour’s newly expanded swathe of local authorities responding to our proposals by doing things that both kick-start their local economies and give life chances to young people.

Up until now Ministers have failed to do much that is of any practical value to take forward the points that not just the Labour Party but a raft of major business organisations, industries the CBI and the British Chambers of Commerce have been raising in this area.

And, depressingly in the government’s response to Holt’s specific recommendations Ministers have ducked out of their responsibility for doing so. Saying “we believe it should be up to schools, together with local parties including employers to determine how best to address this challenge” reflects the same ‘nothing to do with us’ approach that has led Michael Gove to scrap direct funding for young people to get face-to-face careers advice about apprenticeships or the vocational route in schools and colleges.

Jason Holt’s practical suggestions to assist small business in taking on apprenticeships have been met with a Ministerial response of ‘leave it to others’. But Labour locally and nationally believes in government stepping up to the plate, supporting business and providing crucial life chances.

Gordon Marsden MP is Labour’s Shadow Minister for Further Education, Skills and Regional Growth