The Government’s target of creating 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020 could put colleges at risk, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers has warned.
Chief executive Stephen Tetlow, a former apprentice who went on to become a chartered engineer, told the Commons sub-committee on education, skills and the economy today that apprenticeship standards should be nationalised in order to create an infrastructure that would “enable transferability of skills”, and reduce the chance that the quality of apprenticeships would be sacrificed for quantity.
“The main concern is that colleges are [being] sacrificed on the altar of a 3 million target,” he told MPs.
Mr Tetlow continued: “The requirements [of apprenticeships] vary very much between region, type of industry and sector. And in our view this is something that needs to be tackled very much in terms of demand on a regional basis.
‘A completely different pathway into a long and fulfilling career’
Mr Tetlow also told the committee that he believed apprenticeships were important to the future of the UK economy because they offered a “completely different pathway” for non-academic learners.
“[Apprenticeships] give young people, and sometimes not so young people, a completely different pathway into a long and fulfilling career - not through an academic route, but taking them into a completely different route of providing those sorts of skills,” he said.
“To our sector, these types of apprenticeships absolutely underpin... our industry and we think they are really important to the wealth of the country.”
Earlier today, Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employers and Learning Providers, said that the government should consider delaying new apprenticeship standards in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.
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