Apprentices – a good thing, but...

The government is keen to update the clichéd view of apprentices. The modern vision is of apprentices across a range of levels progressing into high status jobs such as lawyers and teachers. It’s a great vision – aspirational even – and one that many of us support, but...

To support vision you need foundations, such as: thought-through policy, a planned implementation strategy, resources, standards, monitoring and evaluation. One day we might get all of this, but it is sorely lacking now and yet this vision is speedily turning into practice.

There were half a million Apprenticeship “starts” in 2015. The government wants this to be three million by 2020. This would need a 20 per cent increase per year over four years. Targets can be blunt instruments and the Apprenticeship targets are certainly that. Public sector employers with more than 250 employees will have a target for new apprentices equivalent to a minimum of 2.3 per cent of their staff. For larger multi-academy trusts this means around 100 to 150 “new starts” a year.