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World Class Skills 2020

I apologise, Mr. Hancock, for having been unable to attend earlier. I want to make a contribution to this debate wearing two hats—first, as a member of the Education and Skills Committee. The hon. Member for Bristol, West (Stephen Williams) has already spoken and our formidable Chairman, my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), has intervened a number of times. Secondly, I speak as chair of the all-party skills group, which is closely linked to the National Skills Forum. What our group has tried to do is an echo of what the Government are trying to do generally. Membership of the group includes not only parliamentarians but sector skills councils and many key businesses and further education colleges. That bringing together of business, parliamentarians and further education establishments is at the heart of much of what Leitch has to say. I should also mention that the involvement of the educational charity Edge is important in supporting the activities of the National Skills Forum. I should like to start by talking a little about the focus and emphasis that both Leitch and the Government place on apprenticeships. At the beginning of the report, in the executive summary under the sub-heading ““A compelling vision for the UK””, Lord Leitch discusses how vital it is to shift"““the balance of intermediate skills from Level 2 to Level 3.””" The paragraph goes on:"““Improving the esteem, quantity and quality of intermediate skills. This means 1.9 million additional Level 3 attainments over the period and boosting the number of Apprentices to 500,000 a year””." The Chancellor and Ministers have said on several occasions that that figure is very important, and I would not disagree at all. The Government’s achievement in expanding both the range and number of apprenticeships is to be applauded, as is that ambitious target. However, the target brings with it two or three questions and responsibilities. The first is to look at some of the inherent problems in respect of apprenticeship completion rates. They are extremely variable, although there has been significant improvement. Whether they are traditional or modern, apprenticeships are highly affected by the regional and sub-regional economic circumstances in which they are taken on. One of the problems, particularly true of sectors such as construction, is that in areas of robust economic activity, such as London and the south-east at the moment, it is difficult, given some of the traditional structures of apprenticeships, to keep people—particularly younger people—in the schemes. The hon. Member for Bristol, West and I joined other members of the all-party skills group earlier in the week on a visit to Lewisham college. We saw a whole range of activities there—people were being trained in traditional subjects such as construction and in some of the newer subjects such as fashion, cookery and related skills. However, one of the interesting things mentioned by one of the trainers, who was supervising a group of 16-year-olds doing bricklaying, was the potential for young people who became skilled through the courses and qualifications at the college to get lucrative work in the following three to four years—the figures mentioned were between £150 and £180 a day. Of course I accept that that circumstance is particular and specific, given the building boom in London, all the developments such as the Thames Gateway and associated projects, and—last but not least—the Olympics. Nevertheless, there will always be such pressure in those key areas. We want apprenticeships in whatever subject to be as robust and detailed—and, increasingly, as flexible and portable—as possible. Only with flexibility and portability can we encourage some of those, particularly younger people, who see economic riches or benefits from throwing in their apprenticeships and going straight to another form of work, to complete apprenticeships. Alternatively, if they are not able to complete them in one place, they could take the ingredient component parts, such as coursework, and do them somewhere else. Such issues are not new, and the academic sector is grappling with them as part of the discussion of framework supportability. They are particularly important in respect of apprenticeships.