Society 'too academically focused'

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Employers, training providers and government must "unite behind one message" when promoting apprenticeships, says Terry Watts of Proskills.

Apprenticeship Week 2011 runs from 7-11 February.

Why do you believe that Apprenticeship Week is of such importance?

A lot of employers do not know about the apprenticeships available to them. People think of apprenticeships in the traditional industries, but this is a good opportunity to remind industries that are perhaps not so involved in employing apprentices, that there is the opportunity to do more.

We forget that a number of industries don't have many apprentices any more. In the process and manufacturing sector we do take on apprentices in engineering, marketing and other areas, but there are more established skills – like the printing operation, making glass, wood – where the industry has got out of the habit of training and hasn't recruited new young people for a number of years. The industry has reduced numbers because of technology.

They are now at the point where they need to start planning for future skills needs and taking on apprentices again. There are a number of tradesmen, moving on towards retirement over the next few years, and they need to be replaced by younger talent.

The focus of momentum behind one event, Apprenticeship Week, will draw the interest of people who are doing apprenticeships and encourage those who hadn't previously thought of pursuing the idea.

It is important to get united behind one message.

Could you tell us about the Proskills awards and how they recognise the work of employers and training providers in achieving exceptional results in apprenticeships?

Apprenticeships are an important aspect of our sector, but there are not nearly enough being carried out. Our sector employs nearly one million people, yet there are fewer than 1,000 that are sector-specific and fewer than 3,000 when you include other areas within the sector, such as engineering and customer service.

For a sector as big as the process and manufacturing sector, with the work profile that we have and an ageing demographic, we need more young people to enter the manufacturing arena.

The idea of the awards is to encourage people that there is excellence out there. We use the awards winners for marketing and PR opportunities. Previous award winners have been featured in articles in national newspapers, as exemplars for the success of apprenticeships.

The awards also drive up standards; employers and providers get the opportunity to speak to one another, and this fosters healthy competition.

The apprenticeships awards dinner is one of the most popular events that we run. You are rewarding people who have achieved things in the workplace that they often never achieved in school or college. The awards recognise people's practical skills that are being put to use in the workplace, rather than just sitting exams. There are also very proud employers, apprentices and training providers there. It is a heart warming event that recognises very exceptional young people achieving outstanding things.

The awards drive up quality, give people something to aim for and assist us in raising the profile of the opportunity of apprenticeships to other people who might be seeking to join the sector.

How vital are apprenticeships to the process and manufacturing sectors?

In terms of securing the future of the sector they are absolutely vital as the workforce is ageing. Apprenticeships are still the best and most effective way of bringing someone into the industry for the first time.

The current focus from the government is useful for us in helping to relaunch apprenticeships into our sector.

They are very important, but they are not the only solution. There is a lot more in different areas that can be done and that needs to be done.

There is no age limit on who can do an apprenticeship, but the government only funds it up to the age of 25, and perhaps some people older than that may want to do an apprenticeship, but are put off by the name. They may want to see the opportunity as more of a ‘professional induction' and less of an apprenticeship.

Apprenticeships are vital for what they deliver and brilliant for the entry of young people into the industry. They are not; however, the only option and we should use a similar model with older candidates.

The manufacturing sector is under-represented quite severely in apprentice numbers. There are 14 times as many hairdressing apprentices as there are manufacturing apprentices, yet the economic impact of manufacturing is seven times greater than that of hairdressing. This makes very little sense, as manufacturing is clearly where the economic future lies.

Are young people sufficiently aware of the option of apprenticeships as a career route?

They are beginning to become aware of the idea of apprenticeships. The route to market for raising awareness of apprenticeships is two-fold.

One is TV advertising, which the government has spent a fortune on. This raises the profile of apprenticeships generally but doesn't get across the relevance of apprenticeships, available in most sectors, to employers or candidates.

The government has also used training providers as the major route to market. Providers are the ones that often recruit the apprentices and work with the employers to deliver on them. However, providers generally only promote the Apprenticeships that they offer and they only talk to the employers that they know, in sectors already taking apprentices.

The message of apprenticeships being available in many different sectors to do many different things has not really been outlined to the public appropriately. What we are hoping to get from government is not money – there are already resources allocated to raise the profile of apprenticeships – but let's not keep driving to get more hairdressing, more engineering, and more plumbers. Let's instead think about the sectors where there should be apprenticeships used in large numbers and there aren't.

The government is fishing in the same pond all the time and trying to get the numbers in that pond to grow, when actually there is a whole ocean of organisations out there that know about the programme and don't realise that it is directed at them.

This goes for schools as well. Schools are still encouraging young people to stay on in academic education, even those for whom it may not be best suited. The age of participation is to be raised to 18. Young people are then encouraged to go along to college and university. The option of apprenticeships is not suggested to them in many cases. The "all age career services" that the government is talking about have a huge role to play in this, and the sooner that they promote this message the better.

Are employers sufficiently aware of the benefits that apprentices can bring to their businesses?

They are beginning to be. They are a bit sceptical; the challenge for us is how you make them aware of these things.

At the awards some of the apprentices that we have attending have been in the company for a number of years and have done outstanding things – more than you would expect someone of that sort of age to be doing in many cases.

This is because they are being trained well and bright, just not necessarily interested in the academic approach. They have found something that they like doing and that they are good at.

Employers are sufficiently aware, but things need to be made easier for them, they need to be encouraged. Most of British industry is based around SMEs and for an SME to take someone on, without being sure that they are going to deliver, is a huge commitment. Given the state of the economy, this is often a commitment too far.

The more we can do to persuade employers of the benefits of apprenticeships, the better.

In circumstances where the provider takes control of the head count and manages the employment, whilst the apprentice works for an employer – this is a really good model to help SMEs. Once a few of these are up and running, we can promote case studies.

There is undoubtedly an apprehension about taking people on and making a commitment, given the state of the economy.

However hardnosed the employer, they recognise that taking a person on as an apprentice is a personal as well as a professional commitment.

What are your views on the coalition's approach to apprenticeships?

They have started in an encouraging fashion, but I am a bit concerned that they view apprenticeships as a panacea for all ills. Government has a tendency to work out what its problems are and implement the solution top-down.

As a country we have a severe problem with youth unemployment. Through apprenticeships we have the opportunity to provide young people with career paths, but the government must not put too much emphasis on this as the only available option.

Ministers recognise that this is about giving people, who are not necessarily the best academically, a route into employment.

The skills system in this country is still trying to catch up with that thinking. I don't believe the system recognises the value of non-academic education and training to the workplace. There is a new series of apprenticeship frameworks coming out in April and they have increased the amount of basic skills that people need to learn.

Everyone recognises that to be a functioning member of society it is highly useful to be able to read and write and have basic mathematical ability, this is very important. If the education system has failed to teach children to do this in 12 years of schooling, throwing that into an apprenticeship will not resolve the issue. Apprenticeships risk being treated as a solution to societal ills. What they are actually about is training someone in the skills needed to work in a particular industry.

Ministers understand this, but the system remains too academically focused.

Has the government correctly identified an approach to encouraging apprenticeships across different sectors?

To drive up the number of apprentices, you need to look at each sector as being different. The more granular you can make your approach, the more effective you will be.

In the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), I am sure that they think of apprenticeships as being comfortable within the manufacturing industry – because of all the engineering apprentices. Well, there are no craft apprentices in the building products industry, with a working population of 80,000. This is not fixing a problem; it is merely not measuring it properly.
When we take our apprenticeships framework to market you have to tailor the offer to employers who see themselves in the printing or the glass industry on an individual sector-by-sector basis. If you talk to them merely as "manufacturers", they realise that you don't know their business.

The sector-by-sector approach is vital. It is important to target specific sectors with specific messages. The government needs to learn this and act accordingly. This may make life messy for Whitehall, but without the diversity of UK industry there would be nothing to fall back on following the collapse of the financial sector, it is a key strength of our economy.