Education Bill

I support particularly Amendment 89ZZB in the name of my noble friend Lord Hill. I echo the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Layard, who has done a remarkable job in seeing this all the way through Committee and Report, and I compliment the Minister, and indeed his friend in the other place, John Hayes, for the way in which they have listened to the arguments. To have had an education Bill that did not actually mention apprenticeships was a mistake. It is always good when a sinner repents and comes forward with a confession. This is a confession that is worth noting. The Minister will go home happy tonight in that knowledge. The whole move back towards an apprenticeship service is something that the previous Government should rightly be proud of. It was supported on all sides of the House, but it was an initiative that was long overdue. The fact that this week we have seen such a dramatic rise in the number of apprenticeships, despite the fact that we have a severe downturn in the economy—I will not say recession—is something that again we should welcome very strongly indeed. Apprenticeships are very much here to stay. I am delighted to be going up to Newcastle on 22 November to open a new apprenticeship centre organised by Siemens, which is trying to work with other employers in the north-east. That is the next step. This is what this amendment is about: making best efforts. It is not good enough now just to say to employers, ““The ball is in your court””. We as a Government have to say, ““How do we make sure that once the ball is played you participate in it?””. Without employers, we do not have an apprenticeship system. I disagreed with the previous Government that the Secretary of State should have a duty on him or her to make sure that everybody who wanted an apprenticeship had one. You cannot do that unless you are going to force employers to take up the apprenticeship offer. There is a real issue, as the Minister knows, with unemployed 16 to 19 year-olds, who at this point are the largest group of unemployed people. The growth in this group is going to accelerate at the end of this year when we will get another cohort of young people going on to the dole queues. It is important that we do not then take the apprenticeship offer and downgrade it. It is important that an apprenticeship has real status in our schools and our colleges. You do not do that if you start to take a substandard group of youngsters who do not have the skills to access apprenticeships properly. I ask my noble friend to consider the ways in which our FE colleges can start to engage with those youngsters who cannot even get on an apprenticeship because they do not have the skills, to entice them back into our brilliant colleges and to give them the sorts of skills needed to embark on a career that will be satisfying and rewarding. This is exactly what this nation needs: a new cadre of young people who have the technical skills to support our businesses once they start to burgeon again.