Report says apprenticeships plan “needs to be linked to economy”

A report has said that new multi-billion pound apprenticeship scheme needs to focus more on economic growth.

A new report by the National Audit Office says that the government’s plans to create three million new apprenticeships by 2020 should be more strategically linked to economic growth and should be tailored to meet the current skills gaps.

The report says that the apprenticeships should be more about addressing the sectors that are currently facing skills shortages, rather than the amount of apprentices taken on.

In support of this, a minister said employers are creating training places for apprentices that meet their needs to fill the gaps.

According to the report, the Department for Education (DfE), which has recently been given responsibility over the apprenticeship programme, has not yet set out how the increase in the number of apprenticeships will lead to increased productivity.

The DfT currently rely on market mechanisms to attract the appropriate apprentices, in order to address the skills shortage, and are “not directly involved in deciding where, or at what level, apprenticeships take place”.

The report says that in order for the scheme to achieve its objectives, there needs to be a “clear rationale for how apprenticeships fit into the wider plan for productivity and growth”.

The report argues that “without this strategic underpinning, there is a clear risk that the drive to deliver greater numbers is delivered at the expense of delivering maximum value”.

The National Audit Office said: “There are no success measures in terms of, for example, how the programme is impacting on skills levels, addressing skills gaps or improving achievement rates,” however the report does note that the programme is in the early stages and a new role may be created to measure the success of the programme. “

Shadow Minister for Higher Education, Further Education, and Skills, Gordon Marsden said the report underlined what opposition MPs had been saying for months.

“The government needs to put extra capacity urgently into delivering the strategy.

“Robert Halfon needs to lobby his Treasury colleagues to give the apprenticeship agencies the funding to carry this programme through properly.”

 

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