Yesterday the Labour government boosted apprenticeships with £3k Youth Jobs Grant for employers who take on a young person unemployed for 6 months; and a £2k bonus for small and medium sized businesses taking on a young apprentice. An extension of long term unemployed jobs guarantee to 22-24 year-olds was also announced.
𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔, 𝒘𝒆’𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕.
I left school at 16 and started my career as an apprentice, my sons the same, so I know the difference they can make.
But we’ve got to make apprenticeships work for young people leaving school. That isn’t happening and it’s contributing to the rate of young people not in education, work or training, something I’ve been campaigning on.
Why? Well given that young people leave school after their exams you’d expect most apprenticeships to quickly follow, they don’t. As it stands only about 16% of the nearly 100,000 vacancies were advertised when school leavers actually need them, from exams to the summer holiday.
Instead, the biggest peaks come in January and February, six months later! That mismatch just doesn’t make sense. We’re asking young people to be ready for work, but the opportunities aren’t ready for them.
𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈.
Around 1,600 people in Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton started an apprenticeships last year, and it will give most the pathway to a rewarding career building confidence, skills and experience.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 