Graduate Jobs

Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Baroness O'Loan

Tuesday 6th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

For someone who was unemployable at the age of 21, the noble Baroness has not done too badly for herself, and I am sure that the RAF has also benefited from the work that she has done over the years. This is incredibly important. University career support has come a long way, as anyone who has had children or known others who have engaged with it will know. There is more and more engagement with local employers, and we on the DWP side are doing huge amounts with employers. Our aim is to try to make sure that, as we develop the skills requirement, we are working in areas of labour demand, and that we work with those who provide both FE and HE apprenticeships to make sure that the right skills are there, that people are going into the areas where there is growth and that they will get jobs. That is quite broad. A good degree takes somebody into lots of areas. Employers want a good range of skills, including creative thinking, analytical thinking and resilience, and those can come from any discipline.

[Baroness O'Loan (CB)]

My Lords, there is a national shortage of electricians, plumbers, plasterers and people of that nature, yet there does not seem to be any focus on the development of apprenticeships for those young people for whom a university education quite simply is not appropriate. Can the Minister comment on this?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

The priority has been on sectors, some of which will include a range of those skills. For example, the £1 billion that we are putting into sector skills will cover AI but also engineering, green energy and all kinds of areas that use a wide range of those skills. If the employers need them, we will support people to train to get those jobs.

Food Banks

Debate between Baroness Sherlock and Baroness O'Loan

Thursday 31st October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, what we are going to do is to support families. People should be able to support their own families, but research has found that if you look at households where somebody had used a food bank in the previous 12 months, 40% of those people are in jobs. Working people should be able to go to work and bring home enough money to feed themselves and their families so, for a start, the Government have just made a significant announcement about an increase to the national living wage. We have a plan to make sure that work pays so that people get into decent jobs and keep them, bringing home enough money to support their families. In the short term, we will make a real difference: free breakfast clubs in every primary school mean that children will not be hungry there. That helps the children and takes a big pressure off their families.

[Baroness O'Loan (CB)]

My Lords, despite everything that the Minister has said about the Budget yesterday, it is being widely reported that it will lead to lower incomes for people generally. Does she think that this will assist in reducing the numbers reliant on food banks, or will it inevitably end in an increase in those who have to rely on them?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, the strategy came through loud and clear in my right honourable friend Rachel Reeves’s Budget yesterday. We have to get this country back to work and get it growing. If we are to reach a point where we can not only repair the damage done to our public services but rebuild our country, we have to make it work. The foundations were laid really well and clearly in the Budget yesterday. The Government have a plan to make work pay. We have a White Paper coming out on that and are reforming the whole of employment support. We want people to be able to get into jobs, keep them and progress in them—not just to make a difference to themselves but to rebuild our country.