Apprenticeships are thriving in England and National Apprenticeship Week which took place between 14th to 18th March celebrated the positive impact that both apprenticeships and traineeships have on individuals, businesses and the wider economy. Employers take on apprentices throughout the year, but National Apprenticeship Week is about celebrating the crucial role that apprenticeships and traineeships play in upskilling the nation and increasing productivity.
The theme for this year’s National Apprenticeship Week is that an Apprenticeship can take you anywhere, as a growing number of young people are looking to an apprenticeship as an alternative route for people who don’t want to go to university.
Apprenticeships make sense for young people, as I’ve seen for myself on visits to local employers like JLR and Aston Martin at Gaydon and more recently when I met with Giles a young man who has just completed his apprenticeship with Crustum, a small independently owned and run bakery in Priory Road, Kenilworth.
Across the Kenilworth and Southam constituency, 2,640 new apprentices have started since May 2010 and over 2.6 million new apprenticeships have started across England. I want to give young people the chance to get the skills that they need to get on in life. That’s why I am supporting the Government’s commitment to create 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 and congratulate every college and business locally that has taken on an apprentice.
The Government is driving up the standards of apprenticeships and introducing new routes into the professions. The opportunity to earn and learn is why we’ve already seen 315,800 new apprenticeships created in the West Midlands in the last five years – an amazing achievement.
These recent figures show that we are making progress towards our goal and the Government also plans to launch the new independent, employer led, Institute for Apprenticeships. The Institute will regulate the quality of apprenticeships in England, taking on responsibility for approving new apprenticeship standards and assessment plans. Only standards that are valued by employers will be approved and funded.
Getting employers involved in designing and setting the standards of apprenticeships is really important. We need to ensure that the skills that apprentices are gaining will help them with their careers, whatever the sector, and enable them to really contribute to the businesses they work in. If we can achieve this I am confident that businesses will take on more apprentices, giving more young people the opportunities an apprenticeship can offer.