Press Release: Apprenticeships fall by a third despite Alan Sugar campaign
The number of new apprenticeships has plummeted by more than a third this year, despite a high profile advertising campaign by Sir Alan Sugar to encourage more young people to become apprentices.
Sugar’s national apprenticeships website, launched in January, has failed to prevent the number of new apprenticeships falling by more than 20,000 in the last year alone. New figures reveal that the number of young people starting a new apprenticeship in the last three months was 36 per cent lower than in the same period last year.
Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:
“With one in six young people neither in work nor in training, it is vital that we create more opportunities for the victims of Labour’s recession.
“Apprenticeships can provide an excellent opportunity for young people to get real training and work experience. Gordon Brown goes on and on about apprenticeships but the number of people actually starting them is plummeting.
“Rather than wasting time on gimmicks, ministers must urgently adopt our proposals to create new apprenticeship places and make it easier for businesses to run apprenticeship schemes.”
Notes to Editors
Figures released today by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills reveal that there were 33,900 new apprenticeship starts in the fourth quarter of academic year 2008/9. This is 29% lower than in the previous three months and 36% lower than in the same period last year.
The fall in new apprenticeships has occurred despite a major campaign to promote apprenticeships headed by the Government’s new business ‘tsar’, Sir Alan Sugar. In January, Sugar launched the National Apprenticeships Matching service, appeared in television advertisements and launched a series of roadshows in an attempt to encourage more young people to start apprenticeships. Sugar said: ‘Success is all about finding people like this - people who will help any business to grow, especially in times like these. It’s important that employers take Apprenticeships seriously.’ http://www.dius.gov.uk/news_and_speeches/press_releases/alan_sugar
But the campaign has been hit by problems - in July, Ministers admitted that just 25 young people were being helped by Sugar’s website each week, with apprenticeship vacancies taking up to four months to be filled (Hansard, 21 July 2009, Column 1679W and 25 June 2009, c1124W).
In January last year, Gordon Brown promised to expand apprenticeships for young people: ‘Today, less than one in fifteen of 16 to 18 year olds is on an apprenticeship. Our goal: that within the next ten years, 1 in 5 young people can get on an apprenticeship… Our first step is to get 90,000 more young people taking part in apprenticeships by 2013 - when a new legal entitlement to an apprenticeship place for suitably qualified young people will come into force.’
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page14414
The Conservative Party has proposed creating 100,000 new apprenticeships and training places by refocusing part of the Train to Gain budget. We would cut bureaucracy to make it easier for firms to run apprenticeships, and provide a £2,000 bonus to every SME creating a new apprenticeship.