16 November 2007
Public sector employers are under pressure to offer more apprenticeships.
The government wants some legislative weight behind its intention to deliver 400,000 apprenticeships in England by 2020. Proposals for a draft Bill were announced in the Queen's Speech last week.
But there are concerns that the public sector is not pulling its weight in offering places. The Learning and Skills Council, which the draft Bill charges with improving the apprenticeship scheme, has called on the public sector to do more.
Rob Wye, national director for strategy, communications and learning at the LSC, told Public Finance that, while some areas, eg, the armed forces, offered excellent vocational training, the picture across the sector as a whole was a variable one.
These concerns are shared at the top of government. In a speech delivered on October 31 — his first on education — Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: 'We [need to] make the public sector a better partner, which it hasn't always been, in apprenticeships, including changes in Whitehall itself.'
Wye said there was great scope for apprenticeship placements within local authorities in administration and traditional trades such as electrical engineering.
He added: 'But we certainly want to branch out apprenticeships into more modern trades like IT — that's a very successful area — and again we've got a lot of that in the private sector; we'd like to see more in the public sector.'
An Improvement and Development Agency survey carried out in 2006 revealed that just 50% of councils were investing in entry-level employment and apprenticeship schemes.
Joan Munro, the IDA's national adviser for workforce strategy, told PF: 'With 31% of the local government workforce over the age of 50 and coming up to retirement and lots of skills shortages, it seems mad if we don't have lots of young people being trained.'
The draft Bill is likely to require public organisations to promote apprenticeships, but details are sketchy.
PFnov2007
