My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 89ZZAA, 89ZZAB, and 89ZZB. Before I get into the nub of the argument, I wish to remedy an omission. In Committee we failed to acknowledge the appointment of the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, and congratulate her on it. Better late than never; please accept our profuse apologies. I did make an extensive case in Committee—and the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, told me in an interval that it was verging on being too extensive—so she will be relieved to know that I will not repeat all the arguments. However, I believe these amendments to contain some very important principles.
To give some background: the first amendment is on the entitlement, committing the Government to make available an apprenticeship for all qualified young people in the 16 to 19 group by 2015, and is against the background of youth unemployment reaching record levels of nearly a million. Even if we take away those in full-time education, it is still historically a very high figure.
As I said in another debate recently, it is interesting that when young offenders were asked what one thing would contribute to changing their behaviour and way of life, a job, or the promise of a job, was probably the most influential factor. Again, as I have said previously, I welcome the Government’s commitment to apprenticeships—I believe that to be genuine—but the current strategy is failing. Its delivery is mainly to adult apprenticeships—that is, those in the 25-plus age range. I do not denigrate that, in one respect, because it is a useful means of people re-skilling, but it does not address the very serious problem of youth unemployment.
If we look at the most recent statistics, we see a decline in the increase in apprenticeships from 17.5 per cent to 10 per cent for 16 to 18 year-olds, and from 34.3 per cent to 22 per cent for 19 to 24 year-olds. In the very area which I regard to be the most vital area of apprenticeships, we are seeing a significant slowing down. Again, I do not want to go over the whole economic case, but we believe that if the Government had adopted Labour’s five-point plan to create jobs and growth, which includes a tax on bank bonuses to fund 100,000 jobs for young people, that would make a significant improvement.
Is it possible to meet the entitlement? Clearly, we believed it was, as a Government: we put it in the previous Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act, and we made the commitment to achieve it in 2013. We recognise the difficult employment situation, which is why we have extended the target to 2015. Is it possible to achieve it? I believe the answer has to be yes.
When I looked at the Government’s response to this question, I must admit that I found it to be very cautious—that is the kindest euphemism I could put to it. It says that the Government will make ““reasonable efforts”” to secure that employers participate in the provision of apprenticeship training for all persons. I should hope that they would. But ““reasonable efforts”” does not really convey that sense of urgency, commitment and determination that we need, and that the Government need, if they are to signal to young people out there that they are determined to do something about the appalling levels of unemployment; and determined to show to young people that if they are able to qualify for an apprenticeship, there will be one available to them.
What has to be tackled is the continuing failure by the majority of employers to understand the benefit of apprenticeships. They are still seen by many as a burden rather than a benefit, yet all the evidence shows that once employers get the message they understand the benefits that apprenticeships can bring. Can it be done? Yes, I believe it can. I have mentioned previously the use of group training associations and apprenticeship training associations. Both approaches need to be significantly expanded if we are to meet this challenge.
The Government must lead by example. They must signal to employers that if they bid for public procurement contracts—I am speaking here to Amendment 89ZZAA —they will be required to indicate how many apprentices they would be prepared to take on if they were awarded that contract. When we were in government we indicated that we would make that a stipulation. I cite two current examples, which I do not apologise for citing again. The Olympics was a good example of where we had to work very hard to ensure that employers understood that, if they were going to bid for an Olympic contract, apprenticeships were part of that bid. A significant number—more than 300—were achieved. Similarly, Crossrail indicated that it would be prepared to take on 400 apprentices. It can be done. There was no legal obstacle to it.
After a meeting with the Minister, I was told that there would be some kind of reconsideration. However, I have been advised verbally that that will not be the case and the Government are not prepared to make an absolute commitment on the question of public procurement contracts. That is a real missed opportunity. It gives employers the worst possible indication—that there is no determination by the Government to ensure that apprenticeships are seen as a key part of bidding for any public procurement contracts. When we think of the hundreds of billions of pounds of public money that go into these contracts, surely it is not too much to ask.
I have not heard many arguments against it. There was one to do with SMEs: I was told that the Government want to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to bid for public procurement contracts. I agree with that; so do we. But why should we signal to SMEs, which, after all, are the very companies that we need to convince, that apprenticeships are somehow seen as a burden rather than a benefit? It gives the wrong signal and is, again, a missed opportunity by the Government.
I turn to government departments. If we ask this of employers, then the Government need to monitor their departments carefully—on a monthly basis, I would say. Again, they should make sure that it is not just adult apprenticeships that are being recruited into government departments. I know that there are restrictions on recruitment but the Government have said previously that apprenticeships would not be subject to that restriction. Therefore, I would welcome some positive statement on that.
That brings me to my last amendment in the group, Amendment 89ZZAB, which says: "““To gain the Investors in People award companies must demonstrate their commitment to apprenticeships””."
I must admit, I was astounded when I went to an Investors in People awards ceremony a couple of years ago to find that one company that had achieved an award had no apprenticeships at all. It seemed to be a contradiction in terms, to label yourself an investor in people yet somehow fail to understand the benefit and importance of apprenticeships. Again, this is a perfectly reasonable requirement.
I indicated that I intended to be careful about the length of my contribution because some, if not all, of these arguments have already been made. I look forward to hearing the Government’s response. I beg to move.
Education Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Young of Norwood Green
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 1 November 2011.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Education Bill.
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