The chair of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has written to education secretary Damian Hinds, urging him to reconsider a report by the committee which called for the Institute for Apprenticeships and the government’s three million apprenticeship target to be scrapped.

In a letter dated 5 September, Lord Forsyth wrote that the committee had considered the government’s response, published last month, but had been “disappointed that the response failed to engage with its central arguments, along with many of its conclusions and recommendations, which have gone unacknowledged”.

He added: “In particular, we were surprised to see that the government did not respond to any aspect of our chapter on student loans and the public accounts. […] Furthermore, your response also failed to address our recommendation to scrap the government’s target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020.”

Urged to revisit

Lord Forsyth said the target prioritised “quantity over quality”, and framing a target in terms of starts made no sense when about 40 per cent of starts were not completed. “The target encourages the rebadging of training which should not be funded or described as an apprenticeship”.

Citing the opportunity presented by the government’s ongoing Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, the committee chair urged the education secretary to “revisit your response to the committee, addressing our report in its entirety once Philip Augar [the chair of the post-18 review] and his colleagues have reported to you”.

The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report Treating Students Fairly: the economics of post-school education was published in June. Among its wide-ranging recommendations, it also called for the creation of a single, Ucas-style application system for all FE and apprenticeship programmes.

In its response the government said there was no need to abolish the Institute for Apprenticeships, which had been given a clear remit.