Labour leader Ed Miliband’s “apprenticeship pledge” turned heads in the industry this week with a promise to create an extra 80,000 “high quality” apprenticeships a year, and a guarantee of an apprenticeship for any 18-year-old with two A-levels.
He also announced a policy of ensuring that “apprenticeships” lasted two years and delivered Level 3 qualifications – equivalent to A-levels.
Labour said that it would require companies benefitting from the £100bn of planned infrastructure investments over the next parliament to offer new apprenticeships, quoting estimates by a BIS select committee this could create up to 100,000 new apprenticeships – in other words, one apprenticeship per million pounds’ spend.
2013/14 figures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills show that there were 440,400 apprenticeship starts in England across the economy, and just 15,890 in the built environment.
Current estimates are that the £42.6bn HS2 project could generate 2000 construction apprenticeships over its lifetime, while Crossrail has created 400 and the Olympics resulted in 430 apprenticeships.
In further details contained in its industrial strategy document A Better Plan for Britain’s Prosperity, Labour said that if it formed the next government it would:
- Ensure that all young people study English and maths to 18, so that more young people are apprenticeship ready when they leave school.
- Require every firm getting a major government contract to offer apprenticeships, and explore whether this should also apply when the government underwrites large projects.
- Give employers more control over apprenticeships funding and standards in exchange for driving up the number and quality of apprenticeships.
- Require large firms recruiting from outside the EU to invest in apprenticeships in the UK.
- Reform Further Education colleges into new Institutes of Technical Education with a core purpose to deliver Labour’s Technical Baccalaureate and apprenticeships.
- Introduce new Technical Degrees delivered by universities and employers so that apprenticeships lead on to higher level qualifications.
The industry has cautiously welcomed the apprenticeship pledge, but Labour’s endorsement of the principle of “giving employers more control over apprenticeship funding and standards” – controversially being pursued by the current government following the Richard Review – raised eyebrows.
Paul Bogle, policy manager of the National Federation of Building, said: “This announcement could be seen as a bold initiative within an increasingly competitive electoral race. It is worth noting that apprenticeship starts in the construction sector have decreased by 23% since 2010.
“What is unclear is how the construction industry might benefit from this policy pledge, especially given the proposed funding regime for apprentices which will disadvantage smaller companies by increasing their costs.”
A press statement from the Brick Development Association also flagged up this point, saying: “It is good to see a requirement for larger contractors working on government contracts to support apprentice training. We would also like to see the process simplified for the small and medium sized enterprises who have traditionally been the most active supporters of apprenticeships in our sector. We do not feel that the recommendations of the Richard Report – the current government’s suggested reform of apprenticeships – to have been helpful in this regard.”
The BDA statement continued: “The sector of most concern to our members is the housebuilding sector. Government initiatives such as that announced by Ed Miliband can help encourage organisations to consider apprenticeships, but ultimately the most important factor will be a more stable market. If companies can be confident of a relatively predictable market demand they will be far more likely to commit the time and money required to train the next generation of skilled tradespeople.”
