The Chancellor Philip Hammond has been widely praised for his pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year, supported by £44 billion of capital funding, loans and guarantees, but he has failed to address the need for a skilled workforce, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Just £34m of the multi-billion pledge to construction was allocated to supporting skills.
The Government has reiterated its ambition to create three million new apprenticeships by 2020, but the latest Department for Education figures revealed a 61% collapse in apprentice starts to 43,600 between May and July, down from 113,000 in the same period last year.
The Chancellor has promised that the government would keep “under review” the arrangements for how employers access funds from the new Apprenticeship Levy, but BESA points out that the review will only apply to large employers who pay into the Levy.
“The dramatic drop in apprentice starts coincided with the introduction of a mandatory contribution from employers despite there being a pot of £650m sitting in the Treasury waiting to be spent on apprenticeships,” says BESA’s Training Director Tony Howard. “We have thousands of willing employers; tens of thousands of young people keen to take up vocational training opportunities, and a raft of new training providers, but no money being released to make it all happen.
“The Chancellor made delivering new housing and infrastructure a top priority, but doesn’t seem to understand the link between these economic targets and a skilled workforce. Holding back this funding is making our skills deficit worse and the Government’s apprenticeship target is increasingly distant.”
BESA is campaigning for changes that will restore incentives for employers to recruit apprentices – of all ages – and a guaranteed minimum budget for non-levy payers’ apprenticeships, which will ensure that there are opportunities for employers of all sizes. It has highlighted major gaps in targeted training provision that could be tackled if more providers were given access to the funds – particularly in crucial building engineering related professions suffering from acute shortages.
The Association believes there is a lack of understanding in the Treasury about the role of vocational training. Not only can it help to deliver the Government’s ambition to improve the UK’s housing stock and infrastructure, but it is central to driving social mobility by putting thousands of people into careers with good prospects and improved pay.
“The Government needs to stop funding the same old same old basic plumbing and heating courses and start getting behind the new generation of ‘Trailblazer’ apprenticeships, which it asked industries to create to deliver the skills employers actually need,” adds Howard.
