Worcester’s MP Robin Walker, who is also a member of the BIS Select Committee spent much of last week visiting local Apprentice employers as part of National Apprenticeship Week 2015. Nationally the event saw 23,000 new apprenticeships committed to by businesses ranging from large to small and saw the celebration of the role of apprentices across a huge range of sectors. Locally in Worcestershire it saw the celebration of success with the 1 of 10,000 twitter campaign to celebrate the County’s success in achieving its target of 10,000 apprenticeships by 2015 a year early.
Figures from the Worcestershire LEP showed that the total number of apprenticeships across the whole county reached 10,000 in 2013/14 a full year ahead of the ambitious target that they had set and national statistics show that since 2010 there have been more than 20,000 apprenticeship starts in the County, the latter figure compared to just over 10,000 in the previous five years. Worcester has seen the number of apprenticeship starts more than double under the Coalition Government from 1,830 in the previous five years to 3,820 in the last four. To celebrate the growth in apprentice numbers the LEP organised a selfie campaign with employers, supporters and apprentices themselves taking their picture to celebrate the achievement of the milestone.
Robin held an apprenticeship and enterprise fair in Worcester to support the growth in apprenticeships early in his time as an MP, he has repeatedly raised the profile of apprenticeships in Parliament and recently organised a roundtable event at Worcestershire County Cricket Club to promote the value of apprenticeships to local businesses, schools and colleges. Following his event at least one local business decided to take on its first apprentice and a college said that they had been won over to promoting apprenticeships because they were so impressed by the young people who took part. As PPS to the DEFRA Secretary Robin has also welcomed the news that there are record numbers of apprentices in the food and farming sector, a big opportunity for Worcestershire.
Last week Robin visited the following companies and learned from each visit how the growth in apprenticeships was benefiting both local firms and local young people in Worcester:
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Compco Fire Systems in St Johns which is expanding and taking on more apprentices to support its specialist fire safety business providing sprinkler systems all over the UK
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Green Lighting Limited, a fast growing local LED lighting firm that has used apprenticeships to expand and take on new staff, one of whose apprentices recently won the Worcester apprentice of the year award & whose founder is a former apprentice himself
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Yamazaki Mazak, the machine tools company, which is looking to expand its total number of apprentices from 44 this year to 64 next year, which was recently awarded the Manufacturing Industry Award for best training scheme and where Robin also recently visited the Industrial cadet scheme which aims to get school age children ready for an apprenticeship and understanding the value of STEM subjects
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Worcester Bosch where he met three generations of the firm’s leadership – Cecil Duckworth, Richard Soper and Carl Artnzen, all former apprentices, and opened the firm’s new distribution centre in Warndon. He also met apprentices from a range of divisions from sales to engineering and celebrated the fact that sales apprentice Abbie had helped inspire local firm St Johns Doors and Windows to take on their first apprentice through her contribution to Robin’s apprentice roundtable in January
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Titania Securities Limited, a cybersecurity business where apprentice Matt Badger, who attended Robin’s recent apprentice roundtable talked him through his work on cutting edge software designed to protect the security of US government departments
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The Elite Nail & Beauty Training Academy in Lowesmoor where the founder showed how she used apprenticeships to help mums back into work and to prepare them for starting their own beauty businesses
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Finally after a busy two days of visits Robin met up with the new Chair of the Worcestershire LEP Mark Stansfeld to show their support for apprenticeships outside Worcester’s historic Guildhall
Commenting on his whistle stop tour of local apprenticeships, Robin said
“It is really fantastic to see how apprenticeships have expanded in Worcester and how they are providing such opportunity across a range of different sectors. We must continue this progress and take on some of the myths that deter people exploring the apprenticeship route. Apprenticeships provide a wonderful opportunity for people to earn a living at the same time as developing valuable qualifications and there is plenty of evidence to show that they add substantially to people’s earning potential over the long term. They are available not just in traditional areas such as engineering and construction but also across IT, Software, hospitality, retail, beauty and catering. More apprenticeships are now being taken up by women than by men.”
“With the Prime Minister recently launching degree level apprenticeships the opportunities for continuing development through the apprentice route are greater than they have ever been before and what is all the more remarkable is that we have been driving up the quality of apprenticeships even whilst we have expanded their quantity. Under the last Labour government it was possible to do an apprenticeship in less than a year or without a proper qualification at the end of it, there were even some apprenticeships that didn’t involve paid work. We have rooted out those that did not deliver and we have still managed to more than double the number of apprenticeships in Worcester. Nationally we have achieved 2 million apprenticeships between 2010 and today.”
“Labour’s confused plans currently include the abolition of level two apprenticeships – something that would massively reduce the total number and remove many of the entry points into work. Their ambitions for the apprenticeship framework in general are weak and certainly do not extend to the enormous expansion that we have planned and their focus on the state rather than employers deciding how apprenticeships should work simply won’t work.”
“The Conservative party and the Prime Minister have set out exciting plans to achieve 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 and that will require even greater investment, by government, by businesses and by young people willing to work hard. I want to see Worcestershire match that ambition and I challenge local businesses, our LEP and our local councils to deliver not just 10,000 apprenticeships but 15,000 in the next five years. To date we have been ahead of the game in meeting that national challenge. Lets keep it that way.”
Notes to editors
For details of National Apprenticeship week see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/national-apprenticeship-week-2015
For the launch of degree level apprenticeships see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-rolls-out-flagship-degree-apprenticeships
For the 23,000 new apprenticeships pledged see:
For the rise of women and girls in apprenticeships see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/apprenticeships-no-longer-just-jobs-for-the-boys
For the record number of apprentices in food and farming see:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-number-of-apprentices-enter-food-and-farming
For a detailed breakdown of Worcestershire’s apprenticeship numbers see:
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=80a9f604332096864278288b65d94b6c