Employers are being urged to follow the example of BT and Jaguar Land Rover in creating a new generation of skilled workers through apprenticeship schemes.
The call was made at the start of National Apprenticeship Week, where business secretary Vince Cable and skills minister John Hayes underlined the UK government’s commitment to increase the budget for apprenticeships to more than £1.4bn in 2011–12.
British Airways’ engineering apprenticeship scheme will see 120 students join the UK flag carrier, while BT is offering 250 places across the group and Jaguar Land Rover is set to create 1,200 apprenticeship places. BAE Systems has also announced that it will be recruiting 290 apprentices for its UK business in 2011.
Calling on firms to follow the lead of these employers, Cable said that the government wanted to work with businesses to deliver 100,000 more apprentices by 2014.
He added that investment in training the next generation of highly skilled workers would be key to sustainable economic growth and called for an end to outdated values that have seen vocational learning branded a ’poor relation’ to academic study.
‘Apprenticeships are a first-class way to start a career,’ said Cable. ‘That is why my department has pledged to work to create some 75,000 additional adult places.’
Prime minister David Cameron added: ‘With hundreds of events around the country taking place, Apprenticeship Week is a great opportunity for more businesses, young people and potential apprentices to get involved and benefit from all that apprenticeships bring.’
i am all in favour of apprenticeships for i believe that a lot of innovation would come
from the people who have gone through such a scheme. i would ask that getting on these schemes via the internet be made as easy as possible as i tried for my daughter but just got bogged down with link after link !y
A great idea why was it gropped many years ago.The trouble is that at least two generations have passed by and the amount of skilled people thus deminished. I ask do we still have the people with the skills required to train apprentices. This is typical of this country leaving things to the last minute unlike our cometitors. Also in the key field of manufacturing and engineering, the true wealth creators for the country , when will society remove the sigma of being an engineer. They are just as important ofr more important than other professions I name such as bankers, accountants and the law makers.
As an a engineer lucky enough to have served a recognised apprenticeship and also to have met hundreds of engineers over the years, both who have served the training and others who have modern type training back grounds I can attest that there is no comparison at all. The standard of some of the younger “skilled” men in the discipline that I share is abysmal.
Being an ex-apprentice from many years ago, i see the added value apprentices contribute to a company. It is a sad fact that many employers who could participate in apprenticeship schemes donot because of their perception that young people are troublemakers, lazy, unreliable and a waste of space. This is far from the truth. Of course there is those individuals who believe the world owes them a living, but like everything these are a minority. The trouble with this country is once a section acquires a stigma it is nigh on impossible to reverse it
Alan Dutton asks why was the apprentice scheme dropped. As usual, answer is money.
As an apprentice I was initially paid about 16% of skilled wage (because that is what I was worth!) -the Trade Unions wanted to reduce the difference – result no apprentices.
You can lay the blame with Mrs M Thatcher
see wanted to kill of manufacturing and she almost did, luckily a few of us survived, but who will replace us?
Having done an apprenticeship myself, I wholeheartedly agree that we need them again. I hope employers are not too restrictive in the age range of applicants, as there are a lot of people in their late 20s and 30s who have not had access to them, and would benefit from the first step to a skilled job.
It often takes a dead end job or two to make one appreciate the value of one with proper training and career progression.
Nice to see the old rubbish trotted out. I don’t truly think Thatcher wanted the end of Manufacturing, she just didn’t care about it. Unfortunately, a vast number of manufacturing jobs were lost, but mainly in the Nationalised industries, most of which didn’t actually produce very much. Sadly, what they did produce very well was apprentices, and that is a big loss. We must recall that between 1979 and 1997 Manufacturing output actually rose in this country, while efficiency grew and sadly employment fell. Of course, between 1997 and 2010 the situation under labout was much better ! Employment and output fell. To blame Thatcher would be less fair than to say that Labour only had an interest in manufacturing because it provided millions of safe votes from Closed Shop Trades Unionists. Remember when British Leyland had full-time shop stewards effectively paid by the Taxpayer while disused airports were filled up with unsaleable cars ? A position the Labour Party later had to replace with millions of people doing similarly little in the Public Sector.
Apprenticeships are vital as is manufacturing, we just need a Government that wants it for the right reasons. As I approach 50, I know that we haven’t had a Government of that nature in my lifetime.
its very inspiring for budding aircraft maintenance engineers…..i want to know if there are any oppurtunities for the fresher aircraft maintenance engineers in India. If there are any openings please mention where and how can we apply