DEPARTMENT FOR
INNOVATION, UNIVERSITIES AND SKILLS News Release (007/2008) issued
by The Government News Network on 28 January 2008
An ambitious plan
to expand and strengthen apprenticeships was published by the
Government today. The Apprenticeships Review outlines the measures
Government will take to ensure apprenticeships become a mainstream
option for young people, as well as plans to boost apprenticeships
for older learners. Last November the Government announced
substantial increases in funding to expand the Apprenticeship
programme over the next three years for both young people and
adults. Today's review sets out how that expansion will be
delivered, how the quality of apprenticeships will be improved,
and how better support will be offered to employers providing
high-quality apprenticeship places.
Building on the major improvements in quality and participation
achieved in recent years, the review will establish
apprenticeships as a key route to building the national skills
base, working with employers to help young people and adults get
the skills and qualifications that employers value.
The plan sets out objectives to make apprenticeships a mainstream
option for 16-18 year olds, alongside other education and training
routes, and to ensure that an apprenticeship place is available
for all qualified young people by 2013, with significant growth in
apprenticeships for older learners as well. As we grow a
high-quality programme on this scale, taking up an apprenticeship
may become attractive to even more young people. We will maintain
our commitment to meeting the demand from suitably qualified young
people, so that if more come forward we will work with employers
to expand the programme further. On this basis, we anticipate that
one in five of all young people will be undertaking an
apprenticeship within the next decade. Further measures include:
- A new National Apprenticeship Service to lead the expansion
and improvement of the apprenticeship programme; - Action to
make it easier for employers to improve the range of
apprenticeships by, for example, enabling them to include their
own accredited qualifications; - A pilot wage subsidy programme
for small businesses, to make it more attractive for them to offer
high quality apprenticeship places; - A new drive to increase
apprenticeships in the public sector, setting targets in key
areas; - A task force to improve the take up of apprenticeships
in London, where there is a current shortfall; and - Examining
how to use the public procurement process to encourage companies
that benefit from significant Government-funded contracts to offer
apprenticeships as a good way of meeting their responsibility to
train and develop their staff.
John Denham, Secretary of
State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said: "In
this rapidly changing world, Britain will only succeed if we
develop the skills of our people to the fullest possible extent.
Apprenticeships have a key role to play. "This plan
details not only how the expansion in numbers will be delivered
but also how the quality can be improved to ensure apprenticeships
can be a mainstream option for more of our workforce and help
secure a prosperous future for the whole country. "Over the
past decade we have more than doubled the number of young people
and adults starting apprenticeships. Building on that, over the
period to 2020, we project that apprenticeship starts will
increase to at least 250,000 per year. "The number of young
people and adults successfully completing apprenticeships has
risen from around 40,000 in 2001/02 to over 100,000 per year now.
We project that the number successfully completing will rise
further to around 190,000 per year in 2020.
"This
means that over the 10-year period from 2001/02 to the end of the
Comprehensive Spending Review period in 2010/11, we project that
more than 900,000 young people and adults will have successfully
completed an apprenticeship. We project that by 2020 this figure
will be over two million.
"This represents a major boost to our national skills base,
to our ability to compete internationally, and to the prospects of
those young people and adults to sustain rewarding and productive
employment." Ed Balls, Secretary of State for the Department
for Children, Schools and Families, said: "We can and will
have a much expanded Apprenticeship programme - the demand is
there, and it's growing.
"I want to see apprenticeships as a popular option for 16 to
18-year-olds, one that will sit alongside the suite of
qualifications, like the Diploma, which will make sure all young
people have access to education and training post-16. In order to
do this, we will increase the number of 16-18 apprenticeships by
90,000 by 2013 and ensure there is a place for every suitably
qualified young person who wants one. This will play a major part
in our objective to raise the participation age to 18. "We
have already announced measures like the new online 'matching
service' and more work experience taster sessions. This
review will provide the foundation for future development of the
apprenticeships programme."
The 'Apprenticeship Review' is published alongside a
joint command paper, 'Ready to Work, Skilled for Work:
Unlocking Britain's Talent' from DIUS and DWP. This
sets out how Government intends to work with business and
employers to raise the skills of the country. Manchester United
Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said:
"When I was a young
footballer, I was desperate to be full-time. But my father
insisted I did my apprenticeship. Apprenticeships were a
comprehensive education which taught young people how to be part
of a workforce. They instilled the values of excellence and
quality in the workplace and served British industry well
throughout the years. It is sad that their demise was so swift and
any attempt to revive their place in a young person's
training should be welcomed and will benefit the economy for years
to come." Sir Alan Sugar said: "I am a great believer
in apprenticeships because young people learn best on the job with
a mentor who knows what they're doing. If British industry is
going to compete with the rest of the world, we're going to
need a trained workforce who are the best at what they do - that
is why I back more apprenticeships for people in Britain. Chef,
restaurateur and author Gary Rhodes said: "I'm pleased
to see that apprenticeships remain at the forefront of
Government's policy to build a skilled workforce and welcome
the findings of this Review. I have seen at first hand how
pursuing an apprenticeship can be an excellent start for a
successful career."
Notes to editors
1. The Apprenticeship review was jointly carried out by DIUS and
DCSF and outlines how Government will build on the existing
apprenticeship programme. The report can be downloaded at http://www.dius.gov.uk.
2. The Command paper 'Ready to Work, Skilled for Work:
Unlocking Britain's Talent' can be viewed at http://www.dius.gsi.gov.uk.
Both documents were published by Written Ministerial Statement.
3. Explanation of targets and measures of apprenticeship in England:
Lord Leitch recommended that there be at least 500,000
apprenticeships in the UK by 2020. This converts to at least
400,000 in England. This ambition was to be measured by taking an
average of the numbers on an apprenticeship at any point in a
given year. This has been the traditional way of calculating the
'number' of apprenticeships.
However, this is an unsatisfactory measure in many ways. It does
not allow for meaningful analysis of the number of young people
and adults beginning an apprenticeship in each year or the number
of people that successfully complete their apprenticeships and go
in to the workplace as skilled, productive employees.
The Review recommends that we move from this 'average in
learning' figure to a position where we measure the number of
starts (ie where individuals take up high-quality employer places)
and the number of successful completions. This is what really matters.
The target of 400,000 average in learning will translate into
some 260,000 starts and some 190,000 successful completions each year.
The completion rate of 63% today, up from only 24% in 2001 means
that more and more people are getting the skills and training that
both they and their employers need. The Government aims to emulate
over time the success rates of the best apprenticeships in the
world by increasing this to 70% or more. By doing this and by
increasing the numbers of employers that offer places, it means
that the apprenticeships system will have the ability to add over
two million skilled and qualified apprentices into the workforce
over the period 2001/02 to 2020.