Quality must not be compromised in the government’s drive to create 3m apprenticeships by 2020, members of the House of Lords said in a debate on ‘the availability and quality of apprenticeships’.

The debate was opened by Labour peer Lady Prosser (pictured above), former deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and ex-president of the Trades Union Congress, with a further 20 peers speaking on the topic, including a rebuttal from Conservative peer the Earl of Coutown.

In her opening speech, Lady Prosser said the government’s plans to create 3m apprenticeships by 2010 “must not be a proposal for never mind the quality — feel the width”, adding that companies should both commit to apprenticeships and work to bring in underrepresented groups of students.

Conservative peer Lord Lingfield, chairman of the Charted Institution for Further Education, supported the view, saying: “To be effective these must be really good quality apprenticeships, many we hope will be at level three, and recognised widely as such by students, teachers parents and employers.”

He added that work must be done to promote the reputation of apprenticeships, to ensure they are seen as a “viable and worthwhile alternative and a sure course towards employment” rather than a “second or third order option”.

Lord Lingfield highlighted the Apprentice Development Centre in Derbyshire, run as a partnership between Toyota and Burton & South Derbyshire College, as an example of a provider that is well recognised for delivering high quality apprenticeships.

Other issues raised in the debate included the gender imbalance between levels of training and job prospects, the need to ensure that apprenticeships are accessible for students with special educational needs, and the role of FE colleges in assisting the delivery of apprenticeships, in light of funding cuts.

The debate, on Thursday (October 1), came three days after Lords held the second reading of the Enterprise Bill, which contains levy proposals and plans for public sector bodies to have apprenticeship targets.

Liberal Democrat Lord Stoneham of Droxford said he was “deeply disappointed” with the bill, adding: “Its appearance suggested that the government has spent the summer wandering around looking for things to put into it.”

He said the problem of encouraging the small business sector to take on new apprentices without “weighing them down with the bureaucracy of government incentive schemes and costs,” had not been addressed, and the government should also be focusing more on tackling the “30,000 annual shortage of engineers going into training”.

Labour’s Baroness Donaghy said that though the commitment on paper was welcome, the apprenticeship levy could turn out to be “a tax on training” that might displace training budgets for existing workers.

She also questioned what the government’s plans were for negotiations with employers and unions on the implementation of the apprenticeship targets.

“If you force the NHS to take on more apprentices, where there is insufficient staffing capacity to provide the right supervision and mentoring, it could be very risky,” she said.

“The types of roles for which apprenticeships exist do not necessarily match up with the job vacancies.

“A health care assistant for example in the NHS, wishing to be a nurse, cannot currently do so through an apprenticeship and would require funding to support their progression.”

Better advice and guidance for young people is needed with figures suggesting 16 to 24-year-olds were making up a shrinking proportion of apprenticeship start numbers, it has been claimed.

The number of 2014/15 apprenticeship starts was provisionally put at 492,700 in this month’s statistical first release. Of these, 210,100 were aged 25 or above — a rise of 33.2 per cent, or 52,400, from the same figures last year.

And further comparing provisional figures, the 25+ age group made up 42.6 per cent of all apprenticeship starts last year, versus 36.5 per cent (157,700) in 2013/14, and 44.9 (222,200) the previous year.

The troubled, and ultimately scrapped, 24+ advanced learning loans for apprenticeships are widely acknowledged to have been responsible for the 2013/14 fall.

However, in quarter four 2014/15, the 25+ age group was provisionally behind 50.9 per cent (55,900) of all starts — up from 49.1 per cent (58,000) in 2013/14.

Teresa Frith, AoC senior skills policy manager, said: “It’s more difficult to recruit apprentices in the 16 to 18 or 19 to 24 age groups for a number of reasons.

“Better careers advice and guidance would make young people aware that an apprenticeship could be an option for them to get a foot on the career ladder.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “The numbers for 25+ are still 20,000 lower than the pre-loan figure but the government nailed its commitment to all-age apprenticeships to the mast well before the general election and you are seeing employers and providers respond.

“Nevertheless, AELP wants to see starts for 16 to 24 increase every year and we strongly support initiatives such as better information and guidance to help make that happen.”

Provisional figures for traineeships also suggest there were 19,200 starts in 2014/15 — 800 short of former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s target of 20,000 new traineeship starts.

Meanwhile, Shadow Skills Minister Gordon Marsden accused the government of letting down young people.

Provisional figures for 2014/15 suggested that 245,300 people achieved an apprenticeship in the last year. In comparison, final figures showed that 255,800 people achieved an apprenticeship in 2013/14.

“The government must improve the quality of apprenticeships and their results, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education need to have a joined up approach which provides real progression for young people,” he said.

Lady Margaret Sharp, former Liberal Democrat education spokesperson in the House of Lords, said she was “very critical of current developments”.

The government, in her view, was misleading people into “believing we’ve got all these young people into good training jobs which will not only provide them with good solid jobs when they’ve finished but also solve all our skills shortages”.

The reality, she said, was that “very few of them are for 16 to 18-year-olds, most go to those already employed in the firm.”

A BIS spokesperson said: “We are developing a comprehensive plan to grow the number of high quality apprenticeships. This will include working closely with large employers, more support for small businesses and a renewed emphasis on promoting the value of apprenticeships.”

Ofsted is to carry out a thematic review of the implementation of the anti-terrorism Prevent Duty in the FE sector, FE Week can reveal.

Paul Joyce (pictured above), Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills and independent schools, said he had put the idea to chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw.

“I’ve actually proposed to our chief inspector that we do look at prevent and look at doing a survey around its early implementation in the sector,” said Mr Joyce in a webinar hosted by Lsect director and former FE Week editor Nick Linford on October 12.

“I think it is important that we establish very early, in terms of policy, what is working and to get that good practice out. And equally to say what isn’t working — what needs to be done,” he added.

The Prevent Duty, which came into force on September 21, requires FE institutions to put in place policies to prevent potential radicalisation of learners and exposure to extremism.

Questions have been raised about the sector’s readiness for the duty. A survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) of its members in English FE colleges, as reported by FE Week on September 18, found that 45 per cent of those questioned had not had any training in how to stop students being drawn into terrorism.

Mr Joyce acknowledged that many providers “do get nervous” about new legislative requirements such as the Prevent Duty, and outlined what Ofsted inspectors would be looking for when they visited providers.

“What we’re interested in is ensuring that staff are aware of the prevent agenda, that staff are aware of what to do given certain circumstances – if learners were particularly at risk, do they know what action to take? — so clearly, training is a part of that,” he said.

Inspectors would be “particularly interested” in the management of the Prevent Duty, he said.

On the subject of the appropriateness of guest speakers, Mr Joyce said inspectors would ask providers about the processes they follow “to ensure those speakers are appropriate, in terms of subject knowledge and their own standing”.

Ofsted would be looking for examples of good practice, he said, and would aim to “publicise that far and wide to the sector whenever we find it”.

“We’ve made it very clear to our inspectors that this is an implementation year in terms of the requirements of the prevent duty,” he said.

An Ofsted spokesperson said the review had been agreed and preliminary work was under way.

Five Lsect journalists, including three from FE Week, have been shortlisted for eight education journalism awards.

FE Week reporter Paul Offord (pictured above) won last year’s outstanding FE journalism category at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations awards and is up for the same prize again, along with FE Week editor Chris Henwood.

Paul has also been shortlisted in the outstanding apprenticeships and skills journalism category, as has FE Week and FE Week reporter Freddie Whittaker.

FE Week reporters Sophie Scott and John Dickens have both received two nods. Sophie has been shortlisted in the outstanding data education commentary category — a new award this year — and John is up for the outstanding national education journalism award.

Both have also been shortlisted for most promising newcomer to education journalism.

“I’m incredibly proud of the team. Once again their hard work has paid off,” said Shane Mann, managing director of Lsect, which publishes the two titles.

“Over the past 12 months, editorial teams from both FE Week and FE Week have relentlessly and tirelessly worked to bring our readers thought-provoking, challenging and investigative journalism.”

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, sponsored by City & Guilds, at Dartmouth House, Mayfair, London, on November 12.