Stephen's Views on Apprenticeships and Skills Training
Unfortunately, for young people who are leaving further and higher education, this year looks to be the worst jobs market for young people for over a decade, with youth unemployment reaching levels not seen in years, and I would not want to be a school or college leaver at present. For many young people, this will be their first experience of a recession. In April 2009, during the Commons debate on the Budget, I spoke out against what I feel to be vague and under-reaching measures from the Government to help solve this problem. They announced a precise sum, £260 million, for the youth guarantee for skills and employment for 18 to 24-year-olds, but only if they have been unemployed already for at least 12 months.
It is not clear what that £260 million is intended to fund, either, since people up to the age of 25 are already entitled to have their level 3 training costs funded in full. Again, despite the fact that it is a precise sum, the outcome seems rather meaningless. It would have been much better to remove the remaining fees charged for further education college courses that apply to those over the age of 25, or to fund fully the off-the-job training costs of young apprentices.
I would also like to see the Apprentices, Skills, Children and Learning Bill become law when it is further discussed by the select committee later this year. The bill, if passed, will introduce a wide range of measures to support apprenticeships and provisions for both educational and skills training. These include the introduction of a statutory framework for apprenticeships, and a right to apprenticeship for suitably qualified 16-18 year olds. Furthermore, it supports the right to enlist in higher education and training, by allowing employees to request time away from their duties to undertake such training, and by placing a duty on employers to consider these requests seriously and to be able to refuse them only for specified business reasons. The bill also establishes a number of new agencies - the Young Person's Learning Agency, the Skills Funding Agency, a negotiating body for pay and conditions for School Support Staff, a new Parental Complaints service and a regulatory body for qualifications (Ofqual) - all of which will carefully oversee the implementation of these new policies.
The full text of my budget speech in the House of Commons can be found at the following link:
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats