ePoltix.com Stakeholders comment on the news that this week marks the start of the first National Apprenticeship Week.
The week aims to show the importance of apprentices in today's work market and encourage more employers to get involved.
Comment from:
Stakeholder response: Chartered Insurance Institute
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A spokesperson told ePolitix.com: "The CII welcomes the support being provided to increase the quality and number of apprenticeships. Apprenticeships offer a number of advantages for employers in the financial world. They present an excellent opportunity to attract more people into the sector and provide entry routes for those who might not normally consider a career in financial services. They also provide personal and professional development - thanks the awarding of professional qualifications.
"On the job training also plays a fundamental role in an individual's development, giving them experience and confidence to accompany any technical qualifications. In addition, apprenticeships are delivered in the workplace and are low-cost and often free for learner and employer – meaning training budgets can be used to address other needs within an organisation."
Stakeholder response: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
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John McGurk, CIPD's learning, training and development adviser said: "With an increasing number of UK organisations facing acute recruitment and skills shortages, many employers see skills training as a means of addressing these. Apprenticeships provide employers with the opportunity to meet these skills demands and at the same time, provide personal development for employees.
"The government has done much work promoting the skills agenda, especially levels 2 and 3, yet we would like to see a focus on building higher level skills. Employers need to step up to the demands of a knowledge economy and train all their staff with both basic and soft skills.
"Whilst qualifications are important and central to upskilling employees, they do not automatically make people more productive. Only when skills development is underpinned by good people management, such as job appraisals, reward, flexible working and good communication, can training be effective."
Stakeholder response: Construction Skills
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Max Hamps, apprenticeships director, said: "This week, to mark England's first National Apprenticeship Week, we are celebrating the 5,300 ConstructionSkills apprentices who successfully completed their apprenticeship in England last year. As well as hosting regional events in partnership with the LSC, we have produced a national supplement highlighting the value apprentices can add to a business.
"We provide grant support of up to £11,750 over the course of a three-year apprenticeship. We have a dedicated team which works closely with both employers and apprentices and yet despite this in our sector last year we had six applications for every suitable employer placement available.
"The consultation paper raises the bar even higher and to meet the new targets we will need all employers to look at taking on apprentices. Government, as the construction industry's biggest client, need to send a clear message to firms in the construction sector that they have a duty to those whom they employ.
"It is then particularly heartening to see the government commit to investigating the potential to provide apprenticeship places through large government projects, such as the Olympics, Crossrail and the Building Schools for the Future programme.
"It signals a long overdue step change that we are optimistic will bring us a world-class construction workforce; now it's up to industry to show they can meet the challenge set."
Stakeholder response: Federation of Small Businesses
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A spokesperson told ePolitix.com: "The FSB feel that particular attention must be given to completion levels of apprenticeships which have suffered over the years. To achieve this, Government should provide funding (through Train to Gain) to assist small employers. This will enable small businesses to provide a suitable wage to their apprentice.
"However, high quality apprenticeships and sufficient wage rates should be reciprocated by hard-working employees who endeavour to complete their apprenticeship. This will result in the investment into apprenticeships helping the individual, the business and the economy.
"The FSB believes that Apprenticeships provide employees with the tools to lead an active and rewarding working life and employers can only benefit from this."
Stakeholder response: SKillfast UK
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Linda Florance, chief executive, said: "Around 70 per cent of people who will be in the fashion and textiles industry in 2020, are already in the workforce now. If we want to make a real difference to productivity in this country, we need to develop the skills of current employees – and that means helping older workers.
"These new announcements are puzzling because they acknowledge the need to train older workers – yet offer a far lower level of support compared with school leavers. Many employers feel that this is little short of ageism, and it does little to encourage the bulk of employers to invest more in skills and qualifications through apprenticeships."
"150,000 more places sounds good on paper, but how much difference can it really make to our sector's employers, when local colleges simply can't afford to run expensive, technically-relevant apprenticeship schemes for relatively small numbers of people? Government needs to think wider, and give more support to employers to develop 'in-company' apprenticeship schemes.
"Using in-house experts to train and assess an apprentice, is often far more preferable to sending employees off to a college, where equipment and practices often lag behind current industry norms.
"Without investment in this greater flexibility, it will be difficult to involve smaller businesses in the apprenticeship programme – especially in those industries, like our own, which do not have a strong tradition of apprenticeships.
"Whilst additional support for skills is always welcome, it is disappointing that these government announcements have not gone as far as they should to address the real issues our employers face."
Stakeholder response: Unite
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Graham Goddard, deputy general secretary, said: "Unite is pressing for a national training levy for all industries to meet the skills challenge. We want to see increasing access and commitment from employers to deliver high quality apprenticeships.
"Equally important is that apprentices are not trapped in a low pay ghetto. Increasing the minimum wage to which they are entitled will attract young people from a variety of backgrounds to take up places and, crucially, to complete them."
