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Education and Skills Bill

moved Amendment No. 200: 200: Clause 67, page 39, line 27, leave out ““contract of employment or a”” The noble Baroness said: I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 201 and 202. The amendments relate to Clause 67, which amends Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, to ensure that the Learning and Skills Council is under a duty to provide proper facilities for apprenticeships for 16 to 18 year-olds. The intention of the amendment is to return to traditional employer-based apprenticeships, rather than apprenticeships based with an independent training provider. As an employer I can speak with personal experience. It is a very straightforward concept. Employer-provided training is the best method of training people for employment. To me that seems very plain. If we are to ensure the flexible and dynamic training provision that is necessary in an ever more advanced economy, we must put in place the most effective method. I believe that employers must lead the apprenticeship system if we are to raise the skills level. They are best placed to know what skills and training an apprentice will need. I have had a meeting with Colin Willman of the Federation of Small Businesses. He told me that most of the members of his organisation want to see traditional apprenticeships return. The federation is not convinced that the training envisaged in the Bill will be appropriate to the jobs that it has to offer. It is right to call for a reassurance in the Bill. Currently, there is a shortage of apprenticeship places owing to a lack of employer engagement. There were only 239,000 apprenticeships in training in 2006-07 and the numbers appear to be falling. Last summer, the Economic Affairs Committee of this House reported that most of the increase in apprenticeships over the years is the result of converting government-supported programmes of work-based learning into apprenticeships. All that new training has been below level 3. Lower-level training has increased at the expense of higher-level training. Of those 239,000 apprenticeships, only 97,000 are at level 3. To drive up standards of apprenticeship, we should look towards the providers out there; that is, employers who are waiting and willing to take on young people to train them to mutual benefit, as long as it is not overly complex and a financial constraint. I beg to move.