Asked by The Lord Bishop of Winchester To ask Her Majesty’s
Government what steps they are taking to ensure that young people
from disadvantaged backgrounds are not put off taking up
apprenticeship scheme places. The Lord Bishop of Winchester
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on
the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare an...Request free trial
Asked by
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The Lord
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking
to ensure that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds
are not put off taking up apprenticeship scheme places.
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The Lord
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my
name on the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare an interest
as patron of YMCA Fairthorne, Hampshire.
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(Con)
My Lords, ensuring that apprenticeships are accessible to
people from all backgrounds is a priority for this
Government. Our funding policy recognises where additional
support is necessary through extra funding. We have
launched a new partnership with five major cities in
England to drive up apprenticeships among under-represented
groups. In addition, our careers strategy will mean that
young people will have a better understanding of the world
of work, including apprenticeships, to help to decide their
future careers.
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The Lord
I thank the Minister for his Answer. However, a major
concern is that disadvantaged students who rely on benefits
lose that entitlement when they take up apprenticeships. My
colleagues at the national YMCA tell me that 50% of young
people say that their apprenticeship salary does not enable
them to afford basic living costs. What action are the
Government taking to address issues in the benefits
framework which adversely affect the ability of young
people from disadvantaged backgrounds to successfully
complete their apprenticeships?
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My Lords, one of the core principles of an apprenticeship
is that it is a genuine job, and it is treated accordingly
in the benefits system. Therefore, a young person on an
apprenticeship will receive at least the national minimum
wage, which will increase to £3.70 per hour for
apprenticeships from this April. The Low Pay Commission
estimates that up to 34,000 apprenticeships will benefit
from that. However, for apprentices claiming benefits in
their own right, financial support is available for those
on low incomes and young people may be able to claim
universal credit or tax credits to help with living costs.
As the House will know, universal credit is an in-work
benefit, so those young claimants in work on low wages,
including apprentices under contract, can continue to claim
support for housing.
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(CB)
My Lords, I know from experience that young people from
disadvantaged backgrounds may need extra help and support
to enable them to take up, and make a success of,
apprenticeships: for example, in areas such as travel,
dress, punctuality and behaviour at work. What are the
Government doing to support employers, particularly smaller
employers, to enable them to provide that kind of support?
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There are a number of initiatives. For example, the DfE and
the Department for Transport are looking at ways to ease
young apprentices’ travel from home to work. That could
take the form of providing extra money or practical ways of
getting them to work. It is important that young
apprentices are not put off taking up this great
opportunity to get a good start in life.
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(LD)
My Lords, are the Government aware of the scepticism I have
encountered when talking to people in Yorkshire involved in
this area over whether the new apprenticeship scheme really
will be used to encourage 18 year-old school leavers to
take up new apprenticeships as their first job rather than
companies using it to upskill those they already employ?
Can the noble Viscount assure us that the Government will
make every effort to develop links with schools to ensure
that children are helped to make the transition to work,
particularly in areas such as the construction industry
where skills are in desperately short supply?
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The noble Lord is correct: in Britain we desperately need
to grow certain skills ourselves. Encouraging employers to
go into schools is very much work in progress. The Careers
& Enterprise Company has pushed for employers to go
into schools to talk to young people about opportunities.
Linked to that, the traineeships, which the noble Lord will
know about, provide quality training for thousands of young
people who need to develop initial skills to help them into
the pipeline of getting into apprenticeships and on into a
meaningful career.
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(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister accept that if we are no longer
in the single market and under the European Union requirement
for the free movement of labour, there will be much greater
incentive for employers to increase the number, and improve
the quality, of the apprenticeships they offer to our
disadvantaged young people?
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The noble Lord is absolutely right: that is why we are
putting so much effort into developing our own
apprenticeships. The Institute for Apprenticeships is looking
particularly at setting high standards to ensure that
employers have the right people on board and that this
country has the necessary skills to ensure that we can stand
on our own two feet after Brexit.
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(Con)
My Lords, is my noble friend aware of the shortage of
apprentices in the engineering sector, due, sadly, to a lack
of encouragement on the part of their secondary schools? I
speak as a former chairman of the Engineering Training
Authority.
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That may well be the case, but, as I said already, there are
several initiatives with employers going into schools, to
ensure that schools can push further to encourage
apprentices. It is important to create parity of esteem
between apprentices and those going along the academic path.
A lot of work needs to be done. There are advertisements on
the radio at the moment—I heard one on my way in last
night—and a full marketing or promotional campaign is going
on.
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(Lab)
My Lords, when the Prime Minister announced her review
yesterday, she called for parity of esteem between academic
and technical routes, to create what she called,
“a system of tertiary education that works for all our young
people”.
That is certainly a worthwhile objective. Yet, bizarrely, the
Department for Work and Pensions does not class
apprenticeships as approved education or training, which
leads to the sort of problems outlined by the right reverend
Prelate in his Question. Can the Minister envisage a
situation in which a 16 year-old goes to his or her parents
and says, “I’m considering an apprenticeship or going to
further or higher education, and in one of those cases you
will lose my child benefit and your tax credits”? It is not
difficult to see what road the parents will usher him or her
down. To deal with this structural barrier, will the Minister
speak to his colleagues from the Department for Work and
Pensions to get them to understand that there will have to be
some change if a level playing field is to be created for
apprenticeships?
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The Government are doing an enormous amount to encourage
apprenticeships for all, and in particular for those from
disadvantaged backgrounds. The noble Lord mentioned parental
input, but it is a joined-up effort of parental input plus
schools, led by our own careers strategy. As the noble Lord
will know, schools have a mandatory obligation to give proper
careers guidance to young people. It is very important indeed
that we raise the level of advice that is given to young
people on careers.
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