Trades and Apprenticeships

Andrew Pakes Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) on securing this debate. It is a privilege to follow both her and the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who have given us such a passionate case for the importance of apprenticeships to our economy, to young people and to those changing their careers. I will put on record that I am co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on apprenticeships. I also refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests: I am on the skills advisory board for Google’s artificial intelligence campus, looking at new skills and new technologies.

Just last month, I welcomed the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to Peterborough college to visit apprentices and businesses and launch the Government’s “Get Britain Working” White Paper. I had the great privilege to meet excellent businesses and apprentices doing brilliant work, including EML, Baker Perkins, Taylor Rose, Codem and Gen Phoenix. Those businesses and learners are excelling in a system that has failed too many of our young people.

Today’s debate goes to the heart of my passion in this House to improve job opportunities for young people and career changers in Peterborough and around the country. I pay tribute to Peterborough college and to my new university campus, Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough, for the work they are doing in my city to transform life opportunities. In my constituency, apprenticeships are down and youth unemployment is up. Under the previous Government, the number of young people not in education, employment or training reached around 900,000, at a time of skills shortages and record net migration to the country. That includes a 40% slump in 16 to 19-year-olds taking an apprenticeship —unforgivable. This Government, I am pleased to say, recognise the severity of the situation. I pay tribute to the Minister for her sterling work to champion the cause of skills.

I will talk about two challenges around the perception and reality of apprenticeships. First, following my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North, I want to look at how the Government must mend the broken apprenticeship levy and increase opportunities. The levy has strayed from its original purpose of providing paid, skilled opportunities mainly for young people, and ensuring that employers target their levy spend to tackle skills gaps and shortages. I thank the Minister, alongside her colleagues in the Department, for their drive to make reform of the levy a reality.

All of us have a focus on certain elements of change, and I want to highlight a few areas that matter in my constituency. The first area is removing barriers related to English, maths and functional skills. We should allow flexibility on functional skills requirements, focusing on workplace-specific competencies rather than mandatory qualifications that block completion. I know from my conversations in Peterborough that that would be particularly important for construction, trades and other areas that we are talking about, where sometimes the competencies required are holding back young people who could flourish in those workspaces.

The second area is increasing the availability of level 2 programmes as a crucial entry point, aligned with local skills gaps and economic needs, particularly in sectors such as construction and healthcare, and for traders and small businesses. The third is providing fast-track options for those with technical certificates or prior experience, enabling them to complete apprenticeships faster. I would also like to see the expansion of degree apprenticeships, enabling more working-class young people to acquire skills in a paid job from day one.

At the end of the day, we cannot ignore the problems we face: poor skills, declining youth opportunities, stagnant wages and an over-reliance on workers from abroad. Some 11 million people of working age are currently inactive. That is a scandal, and it is the legacy of the last 14 years of Conservative Government. We all have a duty to turn it around by generating thousands more apprenticeships for young people, especially those under 25. That will be central, I believe, to the mission of this Government.

That brings me to my second challenge, which is a much broader one, about how we talk about apprenticeships. The topic of this debate, the perception of trades and apprenticeships, is central to that. We need to change the language, culture and approach to careers guidance and apprenticeships. I totted up the entries in a list I got from my office, and since I was elected, as part of my work on apprenticeships, I have met more than 100 businesses and learners from my constituency and more widely. Not one learner said to me that they started their apprenticeship because of help at school.

In our education system, we have a language for university but not one for apprenticeships. That cultural bias in our education system is holding young people and our country back. It needs to end. School are too often geared towards helping young people enter higher education. The language is about higher education: “What do you want to study?”, “Where are you planning to go?”, “Have you been to an open day?” We need a Government-wide and country-wide mission to change that—to make apprenticeships as important a choice as university for our young people. If we do not, we will fail.

As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on apprenticeships, I am working across the House to help find workable solutions to those issues. I am lucky enough to meet great employers and apprentices in Peterborough and around the country—particularly those in construction, which my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North focused on so clearly. I have met with Laing O’Rourke on building sites in east London, with Travis Perkins to look at its work to support the trade, and with young people and construction workers in my own constituency. I know the will is there.

My dedication to apprenticeships is why I support the plans to get Britain working. It is why I welcome the youth guarantee, under which all young people will be offered the chance to earn and learn. It is why I will continue to campaign for an apprenticeship system that is fit for purpose—because apprenticeships are the lifeblood of decent work and growth in our economy, offering more young people a ladder of opportunity to the jobs of the future, and ensuring that our economy can sustain higher living standards through the right kind of skills training, which leads to economic growth.

We are committed to changing both the scope and perception of apprenticeships. Sir Martyn Oliver’s recent Ofsted report emphasised the transformative impact that apprenticeships can have, offering young people practical skills, experience and opportunities. Those milestones underscore an important truth: apprenticeships are not a fallback, they are a springboard to success.

Skills England

Andrew Pakes Excerpts

Wednesday 9th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Antonia Bance (Tipton and Wednesbury) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Skills England.

It is an honour to serve under you as Chair, Sir Christopher. I am so glad to have the opportunity to raise the urgent need to reset our adult skills system in England, to press my case for my constituency and region, and to seek further information about the Government’s plans. The argument I will make today is this: Skills England cannot be just another quango. We need a confident and directive organisation that takes what our economy needs, directs provision, drives learner uptake, and delivers more workers with higher skills ready for better jobs on higher wages. I will also press the case for my constituency, for the Black Country and for the wider west midlands. Judging by the number of people here, there is some interest in this topic, and perhaps we should seek further opportunities to talk about these issues. I am sorry that in my inexperience, I asked only for a 30-minute debate.

We are here today because the Conservatives oversaw a decade of decline in skills, and it has made our country poorer. Employers are unable to fill job vacancies, more than a third of vacancies are down to skills shortages, learners cannot get the training they need and industry is left without the skills to tackle the challenges of the future. That is why Labour have pledged to overhaul our skills system and set up a new body for skills: Skills England. Skills England is a central part of our plan for growth, good jobs and prosperity. It will have three key jobs: to assess skills needs, to oversee the suite of qualifications and courses on offer, and to co-ordinate all the players in the sector, of which there are many. The point is to bring order to the skills system, joining it up and making it more responsive to what employers need.

I want to say a bit more about the nature of Skills England and how it goes about its job. I have five key points. First, Skills England must spot and respond to genuine skills needs through the best available data and intel. We sometimes forget how hard it is, caught up in the day-to-day, for employers to predict the shape of the market for their goods and services in the future, how the supply chains will change and what that means for their workforce, products and quality. I hope that Skills England, alongside our industrial strategy, can help with that.

One of the aspects of Skills England I am most pleased about is that it will be tripartite, with unions on the board as of right. Our movement has always taught working people to read, write, do maths and, more recently, use computers, to help them get on in life. As we face another industrial transition out of energy-intensive and carbon-reliant industries, we need to plan and manage with workers and use their insights too. Workers’ voices need to be around the table on skills, and with this Government, I know that they will be.

Secondly, Skills England must be co-ordinated across Government and, most importantly, with the Migration Advisory Committee and the industrial strategy. I looked at the shortage occupation list this morning and it is frankly an indictment of our skills system that so many vital jobs in manufacturing and construction are listed: bricklaying, welding—something those in my own area are expert in—roofers, carpenters, joiners and retrofitters. No more. Skills England must start to direct support to fill these skills gaps so that we can grow our own. Above all, Skills England must work hand in glove with our new industrial strategy and deliver the skills training that will make the strategy real.

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)]

Let me put on record that I am co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on apprenticeships. In preparation for your speech, I totted it up and it seemed that Skills England will be the fifth such national quango set up by Westminster since the Manpower Services Commission in 1973. The average tenure of a Skills Minister since 1997 has been 15 months—

[Sir Christopher Chope (in the Chair)]

Order. It is helpful if you address your remarks through the Chair, rather than turning away. Apart from anything else, it makes it difficult for Hansard to record what you are saying.

[Andrew Pakes]

I apologise, Sir Christopher; this is my first such intervention in one of these debates. Since 1997, the average tenure for a Skills Minister has been 15 months—longer than Liz Truss’s, but shorter than a premier league manager’s. The average life of a skills quango such as Skills England has been only eight years, less time than most people spend in primary school. Does my hon. Friend agree that the only way that Skills England will be a success is if it is linked to industrial strategy, is tripartite and brings together employers and unions? That would mean that we would have a durable system and not a repeat of the failures of the past, which saw short-term interventions that have not delivered for working-class people.

[Antonia Bance]

As my hon. Friend might expect, I agree with him on all those points. I hope very much that our current Skills Minister’s tenure is significantly longer than the average, and that Skills England proves long-lasting and effective in responding to the industrial strategy.

We expect the Green Paper on industrial strategy perhaps as early as next week, but certainly by the Budget. This may be a tangent, but it is important. I want an industrial strategy that makes choices and sets out which sectors are our priorities—yes, clusters where we are already world-beating, or could be, but also places that are our priorities for industrial development and catch-up. Good growth must level the playing field, and national growth cannot be at the expense of left-behind places like the one I represent.

However, Skills England must respond not just to industrial strategy and migration, but to all of Government, as it touches skills such as our agenda for getting people back to work. We want people helped into real jobs that offer a route out and a route up, and not just any job. That means no more jobcentres running their own skills and education programmes separate to the priorities of Skills England.

Third, we need a Skills England that is directive, not hands-off; one that sees its role as supporting training that meets the industrial strategy, not courses that do not. I will give an example: one shortage occupation is lab technicians for our world-leading life sciences sector. If the gap is lab technicians, then it is Skills England’s job to make sure that the courses for lab techs run, are funded, are supported and are filled. If that means that young women in an area cannot do low-level hair and beauty courses that set them on a path to a life on the minimum wage, but are instead channelled into a higher-wage, higher-skilled job that offers a career path, such as being a lab tech, so be it. That is Skills England doing its job.

It may be easier and cheaper to run a business management course in a classroom at a college, but given the shortage occupation list and the industrial strategy, we need bricklayers and welders. Yes, it will cost more to make the facilities available and we may have to pay the lecturers a bit more too, but that is what is needed.

--- Later in debate ---

[Janet Daby]

I thank the hon. Lady for that important and pertinent point. Skills England’s very purpose—[Interruption.] Indeed, I will come on to speak about that. It will ensure that there is training when employers identify skills gaps and those jobs are needed.

Skills England will ensure that we have the highly trained workforce we need to meet the national, regional and local skills needs of the next decade, and it will be aligned with the upcoming industrial strategy. That is a critical part of the Government’s mission to raise growth sustainably across the country, support people to get better jobs and improve their living standards. Skills England will provide an authoritative assessment of national and regional skills needs in the economy now and in the future. It will combine the best available statistical data with insights generated by employers and other key stakeholders. It will ensure that there is a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships, training and technical qualifications for individuals and employers to access, which will align with skills gaps and what employers need. As part of that, it will identify what training should be available via the new growth and skills levy, which will replace the rigid apprenticeship levy, as many have been calling for, to ensure that levy-funded training delivers value for money, meets the needs of businesses and helps to kick-start economic growth.

[Andrew Pakes]

Will the Minister join me in congratulating my constituent Grace Gourlay, who two weeks ago won the Peterborough Telegraph advanced apprentice of the year award for her work at the end of her second year of a four-year course at Caterpillar in engine and test design? Does she agree that one of the big challenges for Skills England in reforming the growth and skills levy is to ensure that we reverse the decline in the number of young people entering apprenticeships in skilled areas? We must begin to reverse the 70% drop in young people taking up an apprenticeship course.

[Janet Daby]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend and join him in celebrating all of Grace Gourlay’s achievements.

Skills England will work together with combined authorities and other places with devolved deals, as well as with other regional organisations such as employer representation bodies, to ensure that regional and national skills needs are met at all levels, from essential skills to those delivered via higher education, in line with the forthcoming industrial strategy.

To support our aim to ensure more local say in skills provision, local skills improvement plans, or LSIPs, provide an agreed set of actionable priorities that employers, providers and other stakeholders in the local area can get behind, to drive change and help to make technical education and training more responsive to local labour market and employer needs.

Since autumn 2022, the designated employer representative bodies leading the LSIPs have engaged thousands of local businesses on their skills needs, helping to forge new and dynamic relationships between businesses, skills providers and other stakeholders in the skills system. The plans are a valuable source of information and will provide important intelligence for the newly established Skills England.

A £165 million local skills improvement fund has been made available across all areas of the country to support providers to respond collaboratively to the skills needs identified in the plans. I am aware that a local collaboration of colleges in my hon. Friend the Member for Tipton and Wednesbury’s local area, which is led by Solihull College and University Centre, has been awarded £10.3 million of funding to support the west midlands LSIP’s priority actions. For example, Dudley College of Technology is leading a project that has received £2.1 million to support an expansion of the regional electrification and engineering technical training offer, capital investment is being used to upgrade existing facilities and offer new provision.