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Apprenticeships (EAC Report)

My Lords, it is a great privilege and pleasure to join your Lordships’ House. The range of experience and the quality of debate are truly impressive, as instanced by this very debate. I join others in congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Wakeham, and his committee on an excellent and trenchant report. It is vital that we rekindle in this country the co-operation between education, industry and Government that underlies the concept of training through apprenticeships. This report, as do so many reports from your Lordships’ Select Committees, tries to unravel some of the confusion in recent developments and to point to a coherent route forward. I feel I have been going through a form of apprenticeship myself since I was introduced to the House last October, listening and learning. I look forward now to beginning to contribute somewhat more to the work of this great institution. The last months have been a turbulent time. These Benches were a place where my much-loved husband Tim, Lord Garden, participated in, initiated and influenced debate, and used his clear thinking and expertise to contribute to your Lordships’ business. Your Lordships have been gracious in tribute to him. His commitment was matched by the purpose he found here over the past three years, as well as by the good fellowship of your Lordships. I sense his loss to public life, and know how very greatly he is missed at home. In the circumstances, the renowned friendship of this House towards new Members has been particularly appreciated. I am most grateful to your Lordships and also to the House staff, the Doorkeepers, the librarians and the catering staff for the warmth of their welcome. I have met with unfailing readiness to offer guidance in the customs—and indeed around the Corridors—of the House, and with generous levels of collegiate support. I still have much to learn. I take great interest in the topic of this debate. During many years as an Air Force wife, with frequent moves, my professional employment was intermittent. In those days a graduate was regarded as qualified to teach, so my Oxford degree in French and Spanish led to a succession of teaching posts in a range of secondary schools, and a range of subjects, in England and Germany. Coming to London, I moved from academic to vocational education and from teaching to administration. I have worked with City & Guilds for 20 years, developing and promoting work-based qualifications and discovering a world of exciting and inspirational practical achievement that is woefully and illogically undervalued when set against academic results. I worked on the very first national vocational qualifications, and then on one of the early forerunners of the new school diploma. I then set up the City & Guilds Senior Awards programme, which involved forging partnerships with higher education, employers and professional bodies, not unlike those for apprentices. Successful examples of constructive collaboration for apprenticeship go way back to the early guilds and livery companies; they are historic but with much contemporary relevance. Livery companies continue to be actively involved in monitoring standards and encouraging achievement in craft, technical and business skills, often alongside initiatives by the City of London, which gave evidence to the committee. Government funding can benefit from considerable economies on quality assurance if there is this sort of proven track record for those charged with standards and training. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has a stated commitment to streamline the system: "““Simplifying funding and audit arrangements, better and more coherent use of data, and developing better, more strategic relationships built on trust””." Increasing the trust placed in skilled and experienced professionals can, and should, minimise the resources used for external monitoring. In this, further education colleges are natural partners with local employers. They play a crucial role in providing work-related training, assessment and qualifications, for which they merit reliable funding. The 25 sector skills councils are not short of ““best practice”” on which to build. The report highlights concerns, "““that too much responsibility is being devolved too fast to SSCs, which require more time and resources to operate effectively””." Currently they are variable in their effectiveness, but as they cover nearly 90 per cent of the workforce, ongoing developments should ensure that they all operate at the levels of the best. The report highlights another major concern, which has been raised by noble Lords, about the low levels of numeracy and literacy among those young people who have left school ill-equipped but who could be motivated by, and benefit from, purposeful, paid learning. The Ofsted estimate that, "““some 300,000 16-19 year olds are unable to access training or any worthwhile employment as a result of a lack of basic skills””," is deeply disturbing for society, for the economy and not least for those individuals. How can they gain a sense of self-esteem and value to the community if they are cut off from a route into productive work? Replacing ““key skills”” with new ““functional skills””, as proposed in the government response, may not be tackling the root of the problem. With an ageing population, as my noble friend Lord Cotter, remarked, and a decline in the birth rate, it has been estimated by the Institute for Employment Research that 1.35 million new jobs will enter the economy in our current decade, with only an additional 500,000 young people entering the workforce. In the decade from 2010, the position is projected to become more acute. The shortfall will need to be made up by adults already in the workforce, by immigration and by those currently not in employment joining the workforce. The figures provide powerful additional reasons why the country can ill afford not to engage as many young people as possible in productive work and why removing the upper age limit for apprenticeships makes social and economic sense. The challenge of engaging employers in training has been raised recently in the debate on adult learners in your Lordships’ House. Many businesses encourage experienced workers to pass on their mastery to the next generation. Large organisations can justify training expenses against quantifiable long-term benefits, although it is all too easy to see training budgets as a soft target when economies need to be made. For small businesses, the hurdles to taking on apprentices can include real or perceived burdensome regulation, time-consuming recruitment, daunting employment responsibilities and simply not knowing what is available. It is made more difficult for employers when there are constant government changes, such as changes in name and in the remit of departments, with a spaghetti soup of initials which come and go. With lack of clarity, it is understandable if formal training combined with rigorous assessment lose out against the daily challenges of running a viable business. As low-skilled jobs become fewer, there is an increasing need to promote apprenticeships to schools, careers advisers, young people and parents, as well as to make a better business case to employers. The global economy demands that the country has a world-class workforce. This important report has constructive proposals to help the country to rise to these challenges.