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Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I support the amendment from this side of the Committee. Last night, we had an effective debate on apprenticeships. One issue that arose was the fact that the Government are very anxious to see the public sector playing a much bigger role in providing apprenticeships for vocational education or vocational training. It seems to me that this is another form of vocational training. We are perhaps not looking at apprenticeships at a lower level, but at a higher level. There used to be a ““sandwich degree”” when people spent a year out in industry or, often, in public services, which have sadly disappeared. Nevertheless, the co-operation required here means that universities need to think again. I suspect that the Minister will say, ““Yes, it is not right that this should be in the Bill, but there is nothing stopping local authorities and universities from getting together and co-operating””. The point has been raised by various Members of the Committee, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, that at the moment neither local authorities nor universities, particularly those training social workers, have the spare resources to put into making effective such apprenticeships. The Government want to put money into apprenticeships. It would be lovely to see them thinking in those terms.