Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill [Lords]

Maya Ellis Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Maya Ellis (Ribble Valley) (Lab)]

Like many of my colleagues, I found that this year’s National Apprenticeship Week really brought to life the amazing work being done by businesses, organisations and students across my constituency. Listening to many of the comments from across the House about how we need to improve the culture and perception around technical education, I am minded to reflect on the experience that I had when I was in year 9 and getting quite high results in my electronics exams. I had an amazing teacher, Miss Robinson, who asked me one day whether I would consider doing a BTEC in engineering. I did not end up following that technical route, but I do wonder what our productivity would be today if, back then, our culture had promoted it more prominently, particularly for people who were very academic.

I am really excited at the prospect of the Bill laying the groundwork for the new body, Skills England, to realise our ambitious missions for opportunity and growth. One of the best commitments in this Government’s manifesto was to link immigration and skills policy in an effort to tackle the UK’s reliance on international recruitment. Indeed, during the general election campaign, I was on a panel with fellow candidates in Lancashire and explained our commitment, and a fellow candidate standing for Reform remarked that he actually really liked that idea. I will be interested to see whether his colleagues agree today.

Skills England will work closely with the Migration Advisory Committee and Industrial Strategy Council to develop an evidence-based approach to the labour market, with the committee set to monitor sectors where skill shortages are leading to increases in overseas recruitment. Importantly, this will mean that there will be a focus on sectors reliant on overseas workers to ensure that they are addressing their failure to invest in skills in the UK. To support British workers as best we can, it is promising to hear that international recruitment will not be the standard choice for employers filling skill shortages. Although migration can play a strategic role in supporting our economy, it must not be utilised as a means to address skills or training shortages in the UK over supporting British workers here. In general, we are far too familiar with pressing skills gaps negatively affecting our economy. Some 20% of our UK workforce may be significantly under-skilled for their jobs by 2030, and 1.5 million jobs in England are at risk of at least some of their tasks being automated in future.

There are businesses and organisations leading the charge in tackling this. In my previous life away from this place, I was privileged to work alongside the Lancashire skills and employment hub and the Lancashire digital skills partnership, which have long been pioneers for developing our skills landscape in this country. I would like to put on record my thanks to Michele Lawty-Jones and Kerry Harrison, who lead those services, piloting programmes such as the skills bootcamps, which they made such a success of in Lancashire that the previous Government rolled them out nationally.

Their hard work also secured the Lancashire and Cumbria institute of technology, which I was delighted to visit last week at the Preston college base in my constituency. Its principal, Simon Nixon, and many students spoke to me about the technical training that they receive in health and social care, construction, counselling and engineering. Vitally, Preston college collaborates closely with industry experts and businesses to ensure that its curriculum is up to date and reflects the needs of the economy. It is working with around 950 employers who help design the curriculum, support assessments and offer mentoring and industry placements for its IoT students. A great example of that is its work with Leyland Trucks, which reported a need for electric vehicle training for its apprentices. The college embedded a new module into its institute of technology course.

A key need that Preston college meets is providing increased adult education opportunities. The upcoming devolution deal in Lancashire will undoubtedly allow organisations to have an increased say in adult education budgets, to boost local productivity and foster the right opportunities for the north-west. However, the college is concerned about the reported 2% to 3% reduction in adult skills budgets. For colleges that have little adult work or that have struggled to deliver against contract, that might be less of a problem, but Preston college gets around 20% of its income from adult provision and has been able to over-deliver for the past few years. Any reduction applied across the board would hit Preston college’s delivery, particularly in key areas such as construction and English for speakers of other languages, and is likely to add to cost pressures already felt.

Undoubtedly, we are under severe financial pressure at the moment, but we need to be careful that short-term savings do not impact the long-term skills development that we desperately need to lead us to a better financial outlook. I welcome the Minister’s comments on that. What really blew me away at Preston college was the feel of the place. It felt inspiring, modern and a place to really grow. I heard from students who had had negative experiences elsewhere but felt truly at home there. That is what Government investment can do for the wellbeing of areas in need of growth. That is the opportunity we have with this Bill.

BAE Systems is another business operating in my constituency that offers fantastic training and skills opportunities, particularly through apprenticeships. I was moved on a recent visit, on which I was delighted to be joined by the Minister for Skills, Baroness Smith, by a young person who had tried a few times to get a role at BAE Systems. Because of the multitude of inclusive routes that BAE provides young people to end up on one of its apprenticeships, he eventually found a route that allowed his strengths and potential to shine, enabling him to secure a role.

I know from having worked in economic development in Lancashire that many local SMEs have benefited from BAE Systems over-training on its apprenticeship programmes, so that there is a supply of apprentices who can flow into the surrounding SME chain. As many Members have noted, a big challenge is how we encourage SMEs to support apprenticeships when they may need only one or two apprentices. The route that BAE went down came from targeted Government funding. I would welcome the Government’s considering something similar. BAE had the training infrastructure to provide the support much more efficiently than most SMEs would be able to do themselves. We should maximise our productivity in how we train people by making the most of the successful structures that we already have.

I am delighted that almost half of people starting apprenticeships in Ribble Valley in the past year were aged over 25, showing that people in my constituency are ambitious and committed to lifelong learning. I fully support the Bill and I cannot wait to see Skills England established, to support those looking to improve their skills by bringing about a more data-driven and joined-up skills system for all of us.