Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
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Drive for more Apprenticeships in the public sector
Skills Minister David Lammy today called on major public sector employers to offer more Apprenticeships to young people and adults and break down barriers preventing their take up.
The move is part of the Government's drive to see 400,000 Apprenticeships in England by 2020. The Prime Minister told the TUC last month that the Public Sector should provide many more placements.
Responding to a House of Lords report on apprenticeships David Lammy said:
"We have seen nothing short of a renaissance of Apprenticeships under this Government. We now have over a quarter of million people engaged in them in every sector across the economy.
"I am now bringing together public sector employers at a high level summit to help show the way and determine how all employers and small to medium size employers can offer more apprenticeships.
"We want to make apprenticeships more easily accessible to everyone who wants one. A web-based clearing service we have been trialling will help potential apprentices search nationally much more easily by job category and area and match them better to suitable employers. It will also help employers to recruit their apprentices.
"Apprenticeships are routes to good careers. Apprentices can quickly contribute to an employer's bottom line. They are vital to our mission to be highly skilled and productive and we must maximise their potential.
"Working in partnership with employers, learners and training providers, we will introduce an entitlement to an apprenticeship for every suitably qualified young person that wants one by 2013. We are determined to make high quality Government funded Apprenticeships available and well regarded in all parts of the country.'
Notes to Editors
* The House of Lord's Select Committee on Economic Affairs' Fifth Report of its 2006-2007 Session, published in July, may be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldeconaf.htm
* There are currently in excess of 250, 000 apprentices in England, studying c. 180 different Apprenticeships frameworks, over 80 sectors.
* Employees who have taken an apprenticeship have been shown to be more productive, have higher morale and to produce higher quality work than similar employees after their training.
* The Government has also announced its intention to have an entitlement to an apprenticeship for every suitably qualified young person by 2013 and to have half a million apprenticeships across the UK.
* Apprenticeships benefit employers because they gain motivated, skilled workers who are very familiar with the particular issues of their sectors and are highly productive.
* Apprenticeships benefit learners because they form a work-based strand in the overall network of 14-19 education, allowing apprentices to earn while they learn, in an extremely practical environment.
* The summit was announced as a part of the Government's response to the House of Lord's report Apprenticeship: A key route to skill.
* The response addresses many of the Committee's concerns on Government-sponsored Apprenticeships. It includes some more information about the national clearing service for Apprenticeships which the Prime Minister also announced on 10th September.
* The clearing service was a particular request of the House of Lords' Select Committee, and had already been trialled at the time of the report's publication.
* The planned clearing service will have national coverage, but potential apprentices will be able to search the service by job category, and by area. The data that will be collected on providers, learners and employers will help identify specific supply and demand issues within small geographical areas, to find solutions which will enable further Apprenticeships to be undertaken.
* Some of the other recommendations from the Select Committee's report are currently being explored by an internal review between DIUS and DCSF.
* The Public Sector has already been identified as having particular potential for further expansion of its Apprenticeships programme, despite already having very successful Apprenticeships programmes in many areas, especially in many Local Authorities and within the Ministry of Defence.
