Press Release: Labour’s record on public sector apprenticeships is pathetic
Commenting on the Government’s announcement today on public sector apprenticeships, Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:
“Labour’s record on creating public sector apprenticeships is pathetic. Figures we obtained last year showed that there were hardly any apprentices in Government departments and not a single one in John Denham’s own department. Ministers have yet again been caught out not practising what they preach.
“We’ve urged the Government to raise their game on apprenticeships so we hope this announcement goes some way to doing that. But they have had ten years of economic prosperity to prepare us for the hard times we now face and they comprehensively failed to do so.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Apprentices by Government department
Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts last year obtained figures from every Government Department revealing the very low number of public sector apprenticeships.
| Department | Apprenticeships | Advanced Apprenticeships |
| DBERR | No information available | No information available |
| Cabinet Office | 0 | 0 |
| DCSF | 5 | 23 |
| DCLG | 0 | 0 |
| DCMS[1] | 0 | 0 |
| MoD | 3,353 | 2,489 |
| DEFRA | 0 | 0 |
| FCO | 0 | 22 |
| DoH | 0 | 0 |
| Home Office[2] | 0 | 0 |
| DIUS | 0 | 0 |
| DfID | 0 | 0 |
| Ministry of Justice | 6 | 0 |
| Northern Ireland Office | 0 | 0 |
| Scotland[3] | - | - |
| Solicitor General[4] | 24 | 0 |
| Transport | “fewer than 5″ | 0 |
| HM Treasury | 0 | 0 |
| Wales | 0 | 0 |
| DWP | 37 | 49 |
“David Willetts: Failure on public sector apprenticeships lets down young people”
http://www.davidwilletts.co.uk/2008/10/26/failure-on-public-sector-apprenticeships/
(Conservative Party Press Release, 26 October 2008)