Press Release: Sugar falls at the first hurdle
A national apprenticeships website heavily promoted by Sir Alan Sugar has hired just one apprentice for every 25 vacancies listed, new figures have revealed.
The website - which was backed by a high profile advertising campaign fronted by ‘The Apprentice’ host and now Government adviser/minister - has found placements for fewer than four people a day since it was set up in January. The news comes less than six months after Sir Alan, when asked about the best route out of recession, told a journalist ‘I have no clue to be honest with you. Neither does anybody else.’
Despite almost 18,000 vacancies being listed on the website, only 600 have been filled in the last six months, just over 3 per cent. The Government has set a target of creating 400,000 apprentices by 2020 and spends £2.8m a year promoting apprenticeships.
Commenting, Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary David Willetts, said:
“Sir Alan Sugar told us a few months ago that he didn’t have a clue how to help people in the recession and the failure of his apprentice website shows he was right.
“The apprenticeship matching service has proved to be just another gimmick. Four apprentices a day is better than just one in a whole series, but it’s hardly the serious help young people need to get through the recession.
“Apprenticeships are an excellent way to help the young victims of Labour’s recession, but the Government is failing to provide the real help needed. Instead of celebrity gimmicks like this, the Government should be funding apprenticeship places and making it easier for businesses to run the schemes.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. Sir Alan Sugar promoted the apprenticeships website (apprenticeships.org.uk) in a series of television advertisements earlier this year - see video footage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcz-JyDB9qI
In the advert, Sir Alan says apprentices ‘are doers, they make things happen’, with a voiceover encouraging viewers to ‘visit our website’. Launching the costly advertising campaign, Ed Balls said “Alan Sugar is synonymous with success…. I know young people and employers will listen carefully to his support for apprenticeships”. http://www.dius.gov.uk/news_and_speeches/press_releases/alan_sugar
Sir Alan has also promoted the Government’s apprenticeships in press releases and public appearances:
http://www.dius.gov.uk/news_and_speeches/press_releases/sugar; and http://www.dius.gov.uk/news_and_speeches/press_releases/public_apprenticeships
2. On 9th June, Sugar appeared on stage with Ed Balls at an event in Gateshead publicising the Government’s apprenticeship schemes.
3. Parliamentary questions tabled by the Conservatives have revealed that despite almost 18,000 apprenticeship vacancies being listed on the website, only around 600 have been successfully filled - just 4% of the total. Only 25 young people have been helped by the site each week.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 25 June 2009, Official Report, column 1124W, on apprentices, what the most recent figures are for the number of apprenticeship vacancies (a) advertised and (b) filled through the National Apprenticeship Service online vacancy matching system. [287784] Kevin Brennan: At the end of June 2009, 4,372 vacancies were live on the National Apprenticeship Service online vacancy matching system. A total of 17,588 vacancies have been posted since 12 January 2009 when the system went live. There have been 616 confirmed cases of successful offers made as a result of the service, and a further 2,508 vacancies have current applications.
(Hansard, 21 July 2009, Column 1679W)
4. In a recent interview, Apprenticeships Minister Lord Young admitted that the National Apprenticeship Vacancy Matching Service “has a very unattractive name”. He said a “more cool and snappy” name might make the service more successful.
5. Other Parliamentary answers have revealed that the Learning and Skills Council spends more than £2.8m on advertising apprenticeships each year:
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how much is planned to be spent by (a) the Learning and Skills Council and (b) his Department on advertising apprenticeships in (i) 2008-09 and (ii) 2009-10. [254375] Mr. Simon: The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has been responsible for promoting apprenticeships since it came into existence in April 2001. …The LSC plan to spend £2,845,439 nationally in 2008-09 on media advertising (excluding VAT and Central Office of Information fees). Planned advertising spend at regional level is not readily available. … (Hansard, 26 Nov 2008, Column 1691W)
6. Two weeks ago, the BBC Trust ruled that Sugar’s appearance at the Gateshead event promoting the Government’s apprenticeships policy had risked breaching BBC guidelines. The Trust said that Sugar’s dual role as a Labour peer and television host presented a “greater than normal risk to the impartiality, integrity and independence of the BBC” and said the apprenticeships rally “should have been regarded as a political activity which [Sugar] should have formally referred to the BBC Executive for consent”. BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons told journalists that the committee had “criticised some failings by the executive” regarding Sugar’s work with Balls and said the organisation must “learn appropriate lessons for the future.” For details of the judgement, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2009/sugar_apprentice.pdf
7. Last year, a report by the Commons Innovation and Skills Select Committee said that “a number of concerns were expressed” about the apprenticeships matching website. The Committee said that the Federation of School Businesses had questioned whether the website would unnecessarily duplicate other services, while the British Chambers of Commerce and CBI cautioned that the service would not succeed unless it was “based on local areas and local needs”. The Association of Colleges said: “we are concerned that [the service] might detract from some of the things that are working…. One of the things that actually does work now is the relationship between a provider and the employer, and that is something that has built up over time, it is not something that happens very quickly.” The committee said they were “surprised to be told that details of the cost savings from the introduction of the National Matching Service would not be available until 2012″.
For the full report, see
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdius/1062/106207.htm
8. Gordon Brown’s decision to appoint Sugar to a Government job has created tensions within the Labour party. Labour peer and former party treasurer Baroness Margaret Prosser said: ‘I am just completely astonished that we should think that Alan Sugar is a suitable person to be a spokesperson for the British government, he promotes via his television programme a style of management which is about bullying and sexism’ (BBC, World At One, 5 June 2009). Asked if he’d be joining the Labour Party after being given a peerage, Sugar said: ‘God forbid, no’ (Guardian, 8 June 2009). He has previously said of female workers that “it’s easy - just don’t employ them” (Guardian, 1 July 2008) and, when asked the best route out of the recession, said: ‘I have no clue to be honest with you. Neither does anybody else’ (This is Nottingham, 23 March 2009).