But government continues to back apprenticeship schemes
The least productive areas of further education could face cuts as the government tries to free up money to meet its target of creating three million apprenticeships by 2020, Nick Boles, skills minister, has indicated.
Speaking at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) National Conference, Boles noted that the upcoming Budget on 8 July prevented him from saying anything with certainty or in detail, however the government was taking a considered look at productivity and would be making policy decisions based on this.
“There will, over the next few months, be some difficult choices to make about the less productive bits of our further education system, about those programmes where maybe we can expect more from the individuals taking the programme in terms of ability to contribute to the funding of them,” he said.
Boles said that the government were pleased with the performance of apprenticeship schemes so far.
“We didn’t just pick the figure of three million apprenticeships out of the air,” he said.
“All of the evidence suggests that a programme that combines employment with training whereby they both feed off each other – the formal training and the informal training in work – have the highest impact on individuals’ chances of increasing and improving their income, and as a result, the national well-being. It is because of this that we will be investing in more apprenticeship programmes.”
Other speakers at the conference, although keen to see the apprentice scheme work as effectively as possible, were apprehensive about too many changes being made to the current system. They stated that employers required a degree of certainty to invest in the schemes with confidence.
Martin Dunford, chief executive of Skills Training UK, and chairman of AELP, said the “stability” of Boles’s reappointment as skills minister as “very reassuring.”
“I would not want to see a new minister come in next year and decide to reinvent the wheel,” Dunford said.
Jason Holt, chief executive of jewellery company Holts Group, and founder of Holts Academy, which provides jewellery apprenticeships added: “No more changes with the system in this parliament or the next please.”