Apprenticeship target in Queen’s Speech draws ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ warning on reforms

The government has been warned about “to-ing and fro-ing” on apprenticeships policy after a Queen’s Speech today in which the programme was given a target of 2m starts in England.

The annual speech sets out what the government’s priorities will be for the next term of parliament and this year apprenticeships featured just a week after the government revealed employers would be paying out a third of the training costs in future.

The Queen said: “My government will continue to deliver the best schools and skills for young people. My government will increase the total number of apprenticeship places to 2m by the end of the Parliament.”

The speech drew a swift response from Chris Jones, chief executive of the City & Guilds Group.

He said: “If we really want apprenticeships to be seen as a credible and valuable route to a career, we desperately need to see stability in the system. Too much to-ing and fro-ing on the policy around apprenticeships only serves to confuse people.

“We know businesses can benefit from taking on apprentices, particularly with ever-increasing skills gaps but things keep changing around apprenticeship policy.

“For employers and young people alike this only causes confusion. We should be making the system easier to navigate, not harder. We need a strong, stable, consistent system that meets the needs of young people, employers, and our economy.”

Guidance notes issued following the Queen’s Speech confirmed that she had been referring to the government’s target to have had 2m apprenticeship starts over the course of the Parliament.

According to figures from the government’s FE Data Library, the current total of apprenticeship starts from the beginning of the academic year 2010/11, after the current government was elected, stands at just under 1.6m.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock responded to the speech on Twitter saying: “I’ve got my marching orders from HM Queen ‘My Government will increase the number of apprentices to 2 million by the end of this Parliament’.”

The guidance notes also outlined the government’s plans to route apprenticeship funding through employers and require a 33 per cent cash contribution from them, as outlined in FE Week last week . The guidance added: “We are also planning to route funding for apprenticeship training through employers in the future, to give them greater control and purchasing power over apprenticeship training.

“Requiring genuine co-investment will ensure employers have a greater stake in guaranteeing that the training provision their apprentices receive is of high quality.”

The Queen further announced measures to crack down on employers who fail to pay their staff the minimum wage — this could have an impact on apprentices, as a report published in October found that in 2012, more than one-in-five apprentices were not being paid the legal minimum of £2.86 an hour.

The Queen said: “Legislation will impose higher penalties on employers who fail to pay their staff the minimum wage.”

The guidance notes expanded on this by saying that parliament intended to “strengthen UK employment law by tackling National Minimum Wage abuses” through the introduction of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, due to be put before parliament before the general election in May.

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3 Comments

  1. Laurence Mintz

    If they think that they will reach their targets with the Employers having to pay towards the training, they do not live in the real world! Many of the Apprentices in place at moment were only taken on because the Employer did not have to pay towards the training, no matter how valuable the training is to the company.

  2. Good employers have always paid towards apprenticeship training by virtue of the time that their sometimes key members of staff spend in training and coaching. In the case of Sassoon as an example, a world class British hairdressing company rated outstanding by Ofsted, each apprentice gets a dedicated day of something like 1:2 or 3 attention from a top stylist in each salon, as well as staff taking time for further training during the rest of the week. It is naïve, as usual, of the civil servants who brief ministers to not really understand the costs associated with training apprentices. Since 1987, when the first NVQ was used as a qualification to be delivered in the workplace, successive governments have tried to place a financial contribution on employers for apprentices. Some 27 years on we know just what impact this will have on SMEs who are the types of employer that the proposed funding system will alienate from taking on apprentices. How I yearn for the days of having a minister like John Hayes who knew enough to ask the right questions when being briefed by civil servants who know little about what is entailed in quality apprenticeship delivery.

  3. Gail Dalton-Ayres

    After attending the latest AELP conference on 2nd June in London, the notion of the governments MPs being totally out of touch was highlighted with embarrassing effect!! Esther McVey the minister for employment was keen to promote that she was one of the first MPs to employ an apprentice but when questioned if she paid the employer contribution it was clear that she didn’t know anything about this ‘contribution’ and only paid the NMWage for the 19+ apprentice (not the apprenticeship wage so some credit there) When questioned further it was clear she didn’t know what the current apprenticeship reforms were about stating that this was her colleagues department Mat Hancock and not hers…..it would be interesting at this point to know how many MPs who currently boast about employing apprentices, actually pay any contribution to training costs – exactly what the government are proposing in the reforms.