Construction Sector: Skills Shortage
Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
We have a target to increase by 50,000 the number of young people starting apprenticeships, after 10 years in which that number fell by 40%. That is the reason behind some of the support that I have identified, including full funding for small businesses, the hiring incentive for businesses taking young people into apprenticeships, the support being provided through colleges and the increased recruitment of people who have had experience within the industry into our colleges, to ensure that young people get the best and most up-to-date information about those training opportunities. All those things are part of the construction skills package that we have focused considerable investment on, as I have demonstrated.
The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to speak.
Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]
My Lords, with the increased use of solar technology in construction and with the drop-out among construction and engineering students due to the emphasis on academic skills, could we promote two separate initiatives? The first, as a priority, is viring students into solar-related trades. The second is promoting the use of specialised solar engineers from abroad to train others and clear any backlog that develops in solar fitting programmes. We need to unleash the non-academic but inventive skill set that often lies behind Britain’s successes.
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Debate between Baroness Smith of Malvern and Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede(6 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
Before my noble friend sits down, I just want to be clear about one aspect. She talked about mediators recommending only contact centres that are registered. Of course, very often in court, particularly in private cases, there are no mediators; there are people self-representing, very often men. They are the ones who propose contact centres, which may or may not be registered. The point I was making was that it is not that straightforward for a court to find out the nature of the contact centre that is being recommended.
Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)
No, and this was the point I was accepting when I said I would ensure that our noble friend Lady Levitt is informed about it from this debate. As I have said, I am sure we will want to give more thought to how the labelling, almost, of the accreditation that does exist for the vast majority of contact centres can perhaps be made more obvious to courts in the sorts of circumstances that my noble friend identified.