The Northern Powerhouse minister has called for 50 per cent of apprentices to be from the North of England.

In a nod to former prime minister Tony Blair’s call for half of young people to go to university, Jake Berry set his own ambition for apprenticeship starts in the North.

“He said ‘my ambition is for 50 per cent of all young people to go to university’. I feel that was fantastic,” Mr Berry said. “It democratised our university system. It took it away from being an elite system often for the children of elites - historically - and made it one which was an opportunity for all.

“It isn’t an accident when you look at the makeup of our economy that 35 per cent of apprenticeships were started in the Northern Powerhouse, despite only making up 25 per cent of the UK’s population.” 

He added: “The sort of ambition I would like to see coming forward over the next five, 10, 15 years for the Northern Powerhouse is to say, let’s go beyond that 35 per cent of all national apprenticeships started in the North of England. Let’s take that to 50 per cent, because our economy is desperate for those skills.”

Ucas for apprenticeships

Mr Berry, who is parliamentary under secretary of state at the ministry of housing, communities and local government, said innovations from the mayoral combined authorities are one of the ways to help reach this 50 per cent target.

He added: “I think there are some quite interesting ideas taking place already. [Manchester mayor] Andy Burnham has set out an ambition to have an Ucas-style system for apprenticeships across Greater Manchester. We’re watching that very closely. I think there are some challenges about it because it is different from applying for a university place because an apprenticeship is a job - but that work I think is ongoing.

“So I think that the sort of things you would have to be doing is building on the work of the mayors and some of their really good ideas. This is that partnership and alliance I talk about. Why shouldn’t we have an Ucas-style system for vocational skills training and apprenticeships across the North of England?

“Andy Burnham has to show us absolutely that it can work, once he’s done that in an exciting way that metro mayors can do that’s something we should be embracing on a pan-Northern basis.”

Travel discounts for apprentices

Mr Berry praised the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, for introducing travel discounts for young apprentices last week, but said the government would have to watch how the policy worked there before they could fulfil a manifesto commitment to roll the policy out nationally.

Mr Berry said: “That will save an apprentice on average £400 a year. A big challenge sometimes for apprenticeships is that an apprenticeship wage is lower, that is an acknowledgement of the cost for a business of putting you through your apprenticeship that is one of the things that comes with it. So again we should be looking at things like that that are being led by the mayor combined authorities and say is this a piece of best practice that we can apply on a pan-Northern basis.”

He added: “We need to see that it works. I agree with my own party’s manifesto that it is something we should do.”

Looking to the future, Mr Berry is ambitious for the role of the Northern Powerhouse in the field of FE. “I want to see the North in the driving seat of that agenda in the months and years to come.”