Queen’s Speech

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords, at this time of day, following a long, wide-ranging and absorbing debate, most of the points have been extensively and superbly addressed. I offer my apologies for the inevitable reiteration.

There have been two great maiden speeches. The noble Lord, Lord Bamford, as another ex-engineering apprentice, ensures that JCB puts its money where its corporate mouth is: into training, apprenticeships and vocational education, investing in today’s and tomorrow’s engineers. Earlier this year, I had the good fortune to visit the JCB Academy, which is now a university technical college. It is a superb college, with a balanced approach to vocational education that enthuses and inspires young people. I also echo the praise of other Peers for the speech of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham, especially his concern for young people and their expectations of a career or job. He highlighted the need to meet those expectations. As a country, we cannot afford another lost generation of young people who despair of finding a worthwhile job.

I want to focus on two areas: justice for workers in employment and, unsurprisingly, apprenticeships. Before I do, I want to make a plea. In any future debates on pensions, I ask that we stop advertising Lamborghinis when we have a whole range of high-quality British cars, such as Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin. I do not know who got the contract to advertise Lamborghinis, but they are doing well.

I was dismayed when I heard the Minister talk about ensuring further reductions in the number of employment tribunals as reducing the burden on business. As my noble friend Lady Drake informed the House, in the past year we have experienced a 79% reduction in employment tribunals since fees were introduced. For many ordinary workers, unless they belonged to a trade union—as my noble friend Lady Turner reminded us—the upfront costs of seeking redress from an employer who had treated them unfairly meant that justice was denied. I do not want to see unnecessary tribunals and I hope that mediation will be successful, but employment tribunals are not just red tape or a burden. They are a necessary means of defending hard-won workers’ rights and ensuring that employers meet legal requirements, whether they are the minimum wage or zero-hours contracts. We know that far too many employers are willing to deny their employees basic rights. My noble friend Lady Donaghy highlighted the problems of casual employment, which is especially evident in the construction industry, where still too many workers are often falsely described as self-employed. Of course I welcome the proposals to enforce a minimum wage—that is long overdue—but I am far from convinced that the Government will take meaningful action on those employers who exploit zero-hours contracts.

I turn now to apprenticeships. In other debates I have been accused of being churlish towards the Government’s proposals for the expansion of apprenticeships, but at least I recognise their commitment and some achievement. That is more than I can say of the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, in her description of the previous Labour Government. I can accept, in the cut and thrust of debate, a bit of rhetorical hyperbole, but there are limits. I quote from her speech last Thursday. She said that,

“as I go up and down the country and talk to young people who are now just getting into employment, they came through education during the Labour years when they did not get the skills they needed, when there were no apprenticeships” .—[Official Report, 5/6/14; col. 112.]

No apprenticeships? Let me just remind noble Lords, as my noble friend Lord Macdonald of Tradeston did, that when we inherited an almost moribund apprenticeship scheme, we had only 65,000 apprenticeships left and an abysmal completion rate of about 37%. When we left we had 280,000 apprenticeships with a 71% completion rate. It was not good enough and there was much more work to be done, but I hardly think it deserves to be characterised as “no apprenticeships”. We left a firm foundation, which is usually acknowledged by this Government.

A number of Peers have warned of the Government’s desire to quote the large figure of 2 million apprentices. My noble friend Lord Bhattacharyya warned that most of these were adults over the age of 25 and already in employment, and the Richard review recommended that they should not be described as apprentices. Their work may involve essential reskilling and retraining but, in my view, those are not the areas on which we should focus. We need to focus on quality and on two groups—16 to 18 year-olds, where we have seen a decline, and 19 to 24 year-olds. Both are vital age ranges. The Government’s latest proposals on funding apprenticeships are causing concern among employers. The noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, warned us that they may cause some small employers to regard apprenticeships as a financial risk. If we are serious about expanding apprenticeships, we must ensure that the dismal figure of only 8% of all employers and only a third of FTSE 100 companies taking on apprentices is massively expanded.

As I have said on many occasions, the Government should lead by example. I look to the Minister to tell us in his reply why they do not make it a mandatory requirement for public procurement contracts to require apprenticeships. We did it with both the Olympics and Crossrail. We also need to expand group training associations and apprenticeship training associations. All local authorities and local enterprise partnerships should be developing apprenticeships as part of an industrial strategy. Let us not argue about where we need apprenticeships. That is obvious—in engineering, IT, construction, healthcare and the creative arts. In most cases, demand exceeds supply. It is perhaps appropriate that the noble Lord, Lord Livingston, is here because I always quote BT, where something like 25,000 applications go chasing 400 apprenticeships. It is tougher to get into BT than it is to get into Oxford or Cambridge, and I reflect on that as a former GPO apprentice.

As the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, reminded us, schools have a vital role to play in giving comprehensive career advice. However, in many cases they fail to do so, focusing on directing all their students towards A-levels. I go into many schools and when I ask the 16 to 18 year-olds whether they have heard of apprenticeships, they look at me in amazement as though it is something they are totally unaware of. What should we do about that? The noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, suggested that, in its inspections, Ofsted should look at the quality of careers advice. I would welcome the Minister’s comments on that.

Under current legislation, schools have a legal duty to give a comprehensive range of careers advice, but most of them are still failing to do so. We need to continue to upgrade the status of apprenticeships. We need to emulate the companies which ensure that there is a proper graduation ceremony when apprentices finish an apprenticeship scheme. We need to ensure that apprentices go back into schools and tell young people—especially young women—what good career opportunities present themselves in apprenticeships.

In my view, combating the scourge of youth unemployment is our biggest challenge. If we are serious about creating a fairer society—and I think that that is an aim that all of us in this Chamber share—then it is a challenge that we cannot fail to meet.