The Westminster Government’s flagship apprenticeships policies have a worrying lack of focus and will not fill widening skills gaps unless they concentrate on sectors and regions where training is most needed, say MPs in a report.
The Sub-Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy, formed from the Education and Business Select Committees, finds that the Government’s Apprenticeship Levy, introduced in the first week of April, and target of three million ‘starts’ by the end of the Parliament are blunt instruments that risk being unduly focused on simply raising participation levels. MPs say that instead the Government should place far greater emphasis on outcomes.
Neil Carmichael, Chair of the Education Committee and Co-Chair of the Sub-Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy, said: “Apprenticeships are vital if we are to close the skills gap, which could grow wider post-Brexit. We must train our young people for jobs that the economy needs, but the Government has failed to show how its three million target and levy will help achieve this. Ministers must recognise that apprenticeships are a means to an end and not an end in themselves. They need to place greater emphasis on outcomes, focussing on areas of the economy where training is most needed, and ensuring quantity does not trump quality. For too long apprenticeships have been seen as inferior to the university route and failed to benefit young people from disadvantages backgrounds. We fully support the Government’s attempts to improve the prestige of apprenticeships, but it will take more than words to achieve this aim. If the quality is there the prestige will follow.”
And Iain Wright, Chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee and Co-Chair of the Sub-Committee on Education, Skills and the Economy, said: “The Government’s flagship apprenticeships policies positively focus on raising participation but are inherently contradictory. Ministers have a centrally-dictated, top-down three million target, welcome though that focus is, at the same time as insisting that this approach will be bottom-up and address the skills requirements of individual firms, sectors and regional economies. These requirements will often be very different and the Government should target those sectors of the economy and regions of the country where skills shortages are particularly acute. The Government has emphasised in its emerging industrial strategy the importance of supporting and promoting UK productivity and states that apprenticeships will be an important part of this. However, too much training remains sub-standard and detrimental to the career of apprentices and, more widely, the performance of our economy. The success of the Government’s reforms will ultimately be judged on whether the planned increase in the quantity of apprenticeships is matched by an increase in their quality.”
ECA view
The Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) Director of Employment and Skills Alex Meikle said: “It’s widely accepted that engineering disciplines, such as electrotechnical, face an ongoing skills shortage. This threatens to derail broader government efforts to develop a highly skilled, highly paid workforce. The ECA strongly supports proposals to target apprenticeships towards core industry sectors facing a shortfall. In addition, we urge the government to ensure SMEs have the funding they need to train up the electricians and engineers of tomorrow.”
Last year the ECA provided written evidence to the inquiry, which stated that government apprenticeship funding policy ‘risked…driving investment in short duration, lower value apprenticeships which are easier to deliver’, rather than ‘technical, longer duration, higher value apprenticeships’. Three ECA representatives gave verbal evidence to the inquiry – including apprentices Niall Watson of Derry Building Services and Charlotte Burton of NG Bailey.
FM comment
ABM UK, a facilities management services contractor, is set to invest over half a million pounds into the levy in year one. Group managing director of ABM UK Andy Donnell says: “Whilst I can see the point being made about training young people for the jobs our economy actually needs; the facilities management industry, and particularly engineering, is in desperate need of this type of employee investment; as historically it just hasn’t been there.
“We view the Apprenticeship Levy as an opportunity, not only for our business but for the facilities management industry as a whole – but it’s down to individual employers to make it happen. There needs to be an emphasis on the outcomes of apprenticeships, which must strive to ensure they are completed and lead to long-term employment so as to strengthen the pool of skilled workers. This is such a great opportunity for our industry to make a change and a real difference to our employees.”
