Apprenticeships

Lord Cotter Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cotter]

My Lords, it is good to speak on apprenticeships today, thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Wall. The last Government initiated some good progress in the field, and it is welcome that the coalition is putting a big emphasis on apprenticeships as a vocational route for education. That is more vital than ever when there are considerable concerns about people having jobs, but also when the clear view of all is that we need to be a skilled nation.

University education is important, but so is the acquisition of specific vocational skills. A recent report from the Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network said that apprenticeships in this country were among the world’s best, which is welcome. However, the same report drew attention to the fact that, in England, only 8 per cent of big businesses offered apprenticeships in 2009, the lowest proportion out of eight countries studied. Those countries were selected as being similar to this country, seven being in Europe, and all with similar backgrounds to ours. It was stark to learn that, in the other countries, the percentage of big firms offering apprenticeships ranged between 25 and 30 per cent. Clearly, action is needed to get our big companies to step up to the plate, and to help them to do so.

Still looking at the business perspective, it is clear that there is a great need for small businesses to be engaged; I am glad to hear that the percentage is quite high, but there is a great need to increase it, as for big business, because the small business sector is the backbone of the country. It has also often been said, but I say it again, that bureaucracy needs to be kept to the minimum to assist that process.

Concerns have been expressed for some time about the low level of apprenticeships in the public sector, which must also be addressed. However, since much emphasis has been placed on the need for the private sector to provide jobs and stimulate the economy during these difficult times, the Government clearly need to encourage both sectors to engage.

The issue of schools’ career advice was raised by my noble friend Lady Sharp and others, but I add my voice to it. Careers advice must be of a high standard. It has been said that in England, as in France, schools are often hostile to work-based learning and provide little or no assistance. More than one report has indicated that careers advice is often not good enough at school level, when young people need to look to their prospects. I recollect hearing that apprenticeships have frequently not been referred to at all as an option; that must change.

Apprenticeships are offered nowadays in many sectors, which is welcome, but we must not exclude traditional trades in which people use their hands. I came across an example recently where a young person wanted to find an apprenticeship for carpentry but could not find such an opening. I also remember hearing that quite a lot of skills that are important and which we had in the past have been lost. When I was on the Audit Committee, we were very concerned about the difficulty of finding skilled people to help with the maintenance and improvement of the parliamentary buildings. We should not lose sight of traditional crafts and of many others.

I raise one point for the Minister to support. We need to communicate with employers about apprenticeships. I understand that this process was blocked by the Government’s freeze on marketing and communication, which, for example, halted such communication by the National Apprenticeship Service. Fortunately, a partial exemption from this directive has been allowed for apprenticeships, but it is important that communication is increased. I hope that the Minister will consider what I feel is an important point.

We are discussing today the need for an expansion of vocational education. In that connection, it is welcome that the coalition Government are promising an increase in apprenticeship places.

On training, as the Leitch report said, we in this country have a serious problem with management and leadership. It is widely recognised that often the quality of managers is poor; only 20 per cent of our managers have a management qualification. We can spend much time on training and apprenticeships, but all this can come to nothing when, as sometimes or often happens, poor management skills lead to a waste of such talents.

Clearly, the debate is welcome and a lot has come out of it. I am sure that we are all learning, as I have done, from many factors mentioned in it, and I hope that the Government, in their endeavours to increase apprenticeships, will listen. Clearly there is great support for apprenticeships, which is why this debate has been so important. I hope that the Government will address the many good points that have been made by many speakers.