Budget response from the Association of Learning Providers
Contact Aidan Relf on 07710 305182
The trade body that represents the majority of apprenticeship training providers in England has warmly welcomed the further expansion in the government’s apprenticeship programme which was announced in the Budget.
The Association of Learning Providers says that the challenge is to ensure that a good proportion of the extra places go to young people as well as to converting members of the existing adult workforce into apprentices. ALP has therefore been pressing ministers since the coalition government entered office for adequate pre-apprenticeship provision to be in place to help school-leavers who aren’t eligible to start full apprenticeships.
Paul Warner, ALP’s director of employment and skills, said: “The government has definitely been on the right track in ensuring that apprentices are in a proper job with a decent wage. We need though to find places with employers for this summer’s school leavers who want apprenticeships or at least get them on the ladder to full apprenticeships in new access programmes around the country.”
ALP understands that the Skills Funding Agency and the National Apprenticeship Service are currently considering proposals to answer this challenge.
This is a really piostive message from John Hayes and will reinforce the need for the department and the agencies to make this a reality for employers and all training providers. It is also timely to balance the recent statment from NAS on Apprenticeship delivery models which took us back a step towards the agencies believing they should determine how training should be delivered and measuring inputs not the outputs and the impact of the programme.