We must encourage schools to promote apprenticeships
Top of the list of priorities for any minister for apprenticeships and skills must be making sure people know about, and can get access to, great further education and training — that’s the way to get a good job, go on to further training or progress your career.
At the start of the year, lots of people – particularly young people – will be starting to think about their futures. The further education sector and training providers play a vital role in this.
Lots of businesses across the country are benefiting from many fantastic and talented apprentices. What’s clear is that more and more people are recognising the life-changing benefits apprenticeships can bring. The enthusiasm among employers as they grow and reap the rewards that apprentices are bringing to their workplaces is uplifting.
But there are still too many people in the school system, parents and teachers who are skeptical about technical education and apprenticeships. So it is the job of everyone involved in FE to work together to help change their minds and make sure they know about all that’s on offer.
To help with this, the government have launched an apprenticeships campaign and website. Real-life apprentice stars are of all ages and backgrounds. From nursing assistant’s in their 50's to 18 year old's training to be building design engineers (Troup Bywaters) or internet fraud analysts (Santander). Their stories and journeys are truly inspirational, but they would not be where they are now without high-quality training and that’s down to the FE sector, a sector which for too long has been seen as the poor relation in the UK education market.
Something that is still of concern is that a year on from the Baker clause (which forces schools to open their doors to FE providers to let them advertise their services to pupils) coming into effect, there are still too many FE professionals/businesses that are having difficulties or being blocked from going into schools to speak to pupils about apprenticeships and technical education options. As the Prime Minister said in PMQ's recently, it is important that young people are able to see the different routes available to them, different routes into the workplace.
If you are having difficulties, please let the Minster for Apprentices and Skills know (Anne Milton). The Government have made it known that they will intervene if there are clear cases of schools not complying. Government have already taken action, letters have been sent to some of the largest school trusts that have not yet published arrangements for provider access on their school websites to ask them to tell the Minster how they are complying. The government is further committed to making sure all local authorities remind their schools that they must make sure FE providers are able to talk to pupils.
Hopefully, the FE sector can work together on ideas that will encourage schools to respond more positively to approaches from providers. For example, a joint presentation on all of the apprenticeship and technical education options available locally. Or an event with local schools, colleges and employers to showcase further education, and invite parents too. We need to change the culture – we know it will take time, but if FE doesn’t get out there it won’t happen.