It’s easy to forget now, as Brexit absorbs everything, but apprenticeships used to be one of key topics in British politics.
In the 2017 general election, one of the Conservative Party’s key pledges was to overhaul the technical education sector, and to deliver 3 million apprenticeships for young people by the end of the Parliament. Speeches were made; declarations announced on the significant changes on the apprenticeship levy, new and improved standards, and the cost of living for apprentices.
I use the word “forgotten” because that what apprentices often are. And in the biggest debate in this country right now - Brexit - we’re simply barely an afterthought.
Brexit: What will it mean?
That’s why the National Society of Apprentices was created in 2013. Knowing that the only people who we could count on to represent our interests, would be ourselves. We’ve grown significantly since then, to representing over 300,000 apprentices through their employers and training providers, and hosting numerous membership events across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with direct engagement with thousands of apprentices.
Just this week we have spoken to around 400 apprentices in Northern Ireland. Every single grouping of apprentices has raised their concerns, and there are two clear themes. Firstly, there are lots of apprentices that know Brexit is going to affect them, but have no idea how. They simply don’t trust politicians to give them a straight answer and they don’t trust the media to tell them what might happen.
Secondly, around half of apprentices rank Brexit as the second most pressing issue facing apprentices. Pay is still the first, because of the paltry £3.70 apprentice minimum wage, but we’ve never seen that before. Cost of living, how apprentices learn, and the cost of travel all sat solidly at the top of the agenda for the last four years. Brexit has leapfrogged them all. And it’s not geographical - whether we went to Orkney, Orpington, Ballymena or Billericay, the concerns were the same.
Affecting careers and lives
“My business will go bust if I can only work in the North,” one apprentice said. “I cross the border four times a day to get to work,” pointed out another. And a third, most gallingly of all, told us: “There’s nobody we can trust to tell us the truth, the bus was a lie.”
Brexit keeps being raised by apprentices as an issue they are concerned about. The impact of leaving the EU on business and their livelihoods, what it would mean for their future opportunities, cross-border work and education in Ireland.
Apprentices’ views are clear: the Brexit that is being delivered is not what was promised two years ago. The Brexit elites - people like Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson - wouldn’t last a minute on a shop floor, let alone understand our concerns in a post-Brexit Britain.
This is personal for me, as it is for many apprentices. I grew up in a small town in Northern Ireland, I studied a motor vehicle apprenticeship and really enjoyed being in the world of work while also getting a qualification. But as the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed, manufacturing and what is left of the UK’s industrial sector are most likely to be hardest hit by any kind of Brexit. Those may be numbers on a spreadsheet for some people, but for apprentices that our livelihoods that might be moved abroad.
And in Northern Ireland, we don’t just risk losing jobs or apprenticeships, we risk losing peace. Every credible voice in this debate shows that if the United Kingdom leaves the customs union, a return of a hard border on the island of Ireland is inevitable. Those of us in Northern Ireland wonder if the literal blood, sweat and tears spilled on forging the Good Friday Agreement was all for nothing. We worry for the future of our jobs, and our families. Of being stopped, searched, every time we cross the border to work, go to school, visit family or go shopping.
‘Making our voices heard’
Much coverage and column inches have been given to university students and their views on Brexit. But the million-strong apprentices across the United Kingdom - working in industries and jobs that are vital to the future British economy - should be forgotten no longer.
It’s why we’re making our voices heard. It’s why we won’t stop talking about how any kind of Brexit - hard or soft, no deal or blindfold - will be damaging to the forgotten children of UK government policy.
And it’s why myself and other apprentices will be marching on Parliament on 20 October, to demand a People’s Vote, for all apprentices across the United Kingdom.
Sarah McCluney is a member of the leadership team at the National Society of Apprentices, and a supporter of For Our Future’s Sake
