Miliband announces Apprenticeship Guarantee plan

Labour will aim to create 80,000 new high quality apprenticeships by the end of the next parliament, and introduce an Apprenticeship Guarantee whereby every school leaver who gets the grades can start on a training scheme.

Ed Miliband announces the move at a speech in the West Midlands today, where he will outline Labour’s “plan for prosperity”. You can read Mark Ferguson’s take on the implications of the speech here.

The Labour leader plans to make it standard practice for apprenticeships to be offered by both private firms, and in the public sector. A new fast-stream apprenticeship scheme will be set up in the civil service, and employers will be handed greater input and control over the government’s £1bn apprenticeship budget – as long as they can ensure an increase in high quality training programmes in their sectors.

In his speech to Labour conference last year, Miliband set out the goal that by 2025, as many school leavers go on to become apprentices as go to university. Today will see a reaffirmation of the pledge that big companies must guarantee an apprenticeship for every worker they hire from outside the EU – and that firms vying for government contracts must promise to bring in apprentices too.

Miliband says funding for Further Education (FE) will be ring-fenced, that apprenticeships will be counted as part of Labour’s Young Person’s Job Guarantee, and that the rise in apprenticeships will be funded by a reversal of the Government’s rebadging of in-work training for existing employees.

He will also link the fall in apprenticeships to the current row over tax avoidance; pointing to the gap between how revenue should be brought in through tax, and how much less HMRC actually receives. He will say:

“There has been lots of debate about tax avoidance in the last few weeks. And nothing more symbolises their failing plan than seeing tax gap – between what should be paid and the revenue received – widening while the number of apprenticeships available for young people fell in the last year. 

“We need a better plan to replace an economy where tens of billions are lost in tax avoidance with an economy where tens of thousands more of our young people are doing apprenticeships and we help more businesses grow, succeed and create wealth.

For too long this country has believed we can succeed with just some people having access to world-class education, training and skills. So our plan begins with a revolution in vocational education: a new gold standard vocational baccalaureate in our schools; new technical degrees at our universities; and real, high-quality apprenticeships as well.

At the moment just one in 10 employers in England offers an apprenticeship. Six times fewer high quality apprenticeships than Germany.

We can do better, and with our plan we will: the public sector playing its part with thousands of apprenticeships; every firm that wins a major government contract required to deliver apprenticeships; every firm recruiting from outside the EU required to do the same; with businesses having more control over the funding.

It is time to match the aspirations of our young people with the high quality apprenticeships they deserve. So under the next Labour government, if you get the grades at 18 you will be guaranteed an apprenticeship. That is what I mean by a better plan for working people, a better plan for Britain.”