Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hayes]

I take the view that Government have a role and that procurement has a role as well. For that reason I have established a ministerial champions group for apprenticeships involving 14 Departments, we have explored the development of kitemarking for good employers who use apprenticeships and supply the public sector, and we have provided streamlined informational skills for companies that want to supply Government.

My hon. Friend has been a great champion of apprenticeships, and has even taken on an apprentice himself. Let me again urge all Members to take on their own apprentices.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

16. What plans he has to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to offer apprenticeships.

[The Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning (Mr John Hayes)]

As you can see, Mr Speaker, I am irrepressible.

We have recently announced a new financial incentive of £1,500, which will help up to 40,000 small employers who have not previously engaged in the programme to take on a young apprentice. We are taking radical steps to speed up and simplify the process for employers, and to remove unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy.

[Mark Lancaster]

While the Minister’s talents are obvious, some of us have hidden talents. I, for instance, am a pyrotechnician, and ran the family firework company for many years. We were always keen to take on apprentices, but it was hard to keep them in a long-term skilled job, and the paperwork involved in taking them on in the first place was very extensive. What can be done to help the situation?