As part of National Apprenticeship Week, I was pleased to welcome the Shadow Minister for Further Education and Skills, Toby Perkins MP to Humberside Engineering Training Association to recognise the enormous contribution made by apprentices in East Hull.

Apprenticeships provide people with the chance to learn a trade and earn a wage whilst they progress. Investing in training opportunities will be central to rebuilding our economy after the pandemic.

However, the Conservatives’ have overseen a decade of decline in apprenticeships, and the Government is failing to reverse a downward trend in apprentice numbers. In 2016/17 there was 1,510 Apprentices in East Hull that has now fallen to 770 in 2020/21.

Since 2020, the Government have offered an incentive of up to £3,000 for employers to take on a new apprentice. However, this has failed to generate a significant number of new apprenticeships, particularly for small and medium sized businesses.

Labour have called upon the Government to act now to create more apprenticeship opportunities by creating a wage subsidy from the underspend in the apprenticeships levy. Backed by the Association of Employers and Learning Providers (AELP), this could have created up to 100,000 new apprenticeships for 16-24-year olds last year.

 

 

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