I fully endorse Catherine McKinnell’s Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procure- ment Contracts) Bill, as she too realises the crucial role of apprenticeships in developing the skills of people through training and real work experience. Through this initiative, by ensuring there is a firm need for contracts awarded by the public sector to stipulate a commitment to taking on and developing apprentices, I believe she will continue to build upon the impressive strides made under the last government in the area of apprenticeships.
Since the general election the Conservative- led government has repeatedly stated its commitment to apprenticeships. John Hayes, the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, with responsibility for apprenticeships, stated: ‘We have promised to re-shape the apprenticeships programme to ensure that it provides more high-quality training opportunities. We have already begun to deliver on that promise by
redeploying £150 million to provide an extra 50,000 places.’ The government has also committed to re-examining the barriers to expanding Level 3 apprenticeships for 19 to 30-year-olds in line with the commitment set out last year as part of its skills strategy.
Huge task No-one underestimates that this is a huge task, building on the Labour government’s success in increasing the number of apprenticeships available in the UK. In 2008-09 (the last year for which figures are available) there were 239,900 apprenticeships taken up in the UK, an all-time high. Therefore, in the current economic climate, using public procurement to encourage apprenticeships really does make sense. The financial invest- ment required to expand training will be shared by the taxpayer and private firms making profits from public contracts. Government spending is declining, yet
the need for jobs and training is higher than ever. The current supply of quality
apprenticeships is clearly not sufficient to meet demand and that was highlighted this year when British Telecom received 24,000 applications for only 221 places on its apprenticeship programme. Over the last few months I have met with
representatives from NIACE as well as a range of other organisations in the education field; time and time again, I hear that the main obstacle to increasing the numbers of apprenticeship available is getting employers to ‘buy in’ to the idea of making that small change within their business to bring about a big difference in their organisation and the lives of so many people. I am hopeful my Apprenticeships Bill might be just what is needed to make this happen.
Catherine McKinnell is Labour MP for Newcastle North and Shadow Solicitor General.
The Apprenticeships and Skills (Public Procurement Contracts) Bill receives its second reading in Parliament on Friday 11 February.
JANUARY 2011 ADULTS LEARNING 17
c Richard Olivier
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