Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

The Minister knows full well that when the Conservatives were in power, apprenticeships were real apprenticeships: they had not been redefined. There had been no sleight of hand in an attempt to redefine them. The hon. Member for Wakefield (Mary Creagh) raged against the 1980s YTS schemes, but bringing in programmes of study that are not proper apprenticeships, and styling them as apprenticeships, does not provide the answers that people need. The numbers of those actually in learning in that way have not increased since the Government came to power. That is the problem. The statistics are available and we should not be arguing about facts that are a matter of public record and indisputable. The Minister is bigger than that. Today we should be talking about how best to move forward and make a reality of the vision that lies—as I accept—behind this Bill. The reason for my anger—if that is not the right word, then I shall say my frustration—with the Bill is that, not for the first time under this Government, a picture has been painted that we all want to see delivered, but the mechanics of the legislation cannot be relied on to deliver it. We have to hope that secondary legislation or some activity by others that is not included in the Bill will deliver the change that the country so badly needs.