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Major expansion of apprenticeships - PM

28 January 2008

Gordon Brown has set out plans to enable a major expansion of apprenticeships which, alongside tough new reforms of welfare policies to encourage the inactive to get new skills, will help equip Britain for the challenges of the future.

Speaking to a conference of business leaders in London, Mr Brown said he wanted to create "a Britain of opportunity" where everyone can make the most of their talents. The plans outlined aim to encourage more employers to offer apprenticeships, and more young people to take them up, over the next decade.

Mr Brown, who was joined by new Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and the skills secretary John Denham, said there would be strong incentives to get the inactive the skills they need.

The PM said:

"A generation ago, a British Prime Minister had to worry about the global arms race. Today a British Prime Minister has to worry about the global skills race because the nation that shows it can bring out the best in all its people will be the great success story of the coming decades.

"So it is time for a wake up call for young people, employees and employers that we now summon ourselves to a new national effort and mobilisation to win the new skills race.

"The biggest barrier to full employment is now not the shortage of jobs but the shortage of skills among the unemployed and inactive. The biggest barrier to Britain's success in the jobs of the future: a skills deficit particularly amongst the low paid."

John Denham and Ed Balls will be setting out proposals to increase the number of apprenticeships being taken by 16-18 year olds by 90,000 by 2013.

The new measures to expand apprenticeships include: action to make it easier for employers to improve the range of apprenticeships by, for example, enabling them to include their own accredited qualifications; a pilot wage subsidy programme for small businesses; and a new drive to increase apprenticeships in the public sector.

Last week the PM welcomed four apprentices to Downing Street to learn about their experiences and how their training had helped them in their chosen careers.

 

Image copyright Reuters