We were delighted to see the Prime Minister put apprenticeships at the centre of the Government’s industrial strategy with the announcement of Foundation Apprenticeships in his speech at this year’s Labour Party Conference. If delivered well, this could be help slow and helpfully reverse the decline in young apprenticeships we’ve seen in recent years.
Edge CEO, Alice Gardner, said:
“The Prime Minister’s words reflect a welcome shift in sentiment from this Government, recognising that young people, and apprenticeships, are central to the wider, cross-departmental ambition to meet our skills needs.
We are delighted that the Government has listened to our calls in our recent Flex Without Compromise report, and introduced Foundation Apprenticeships. Whilst we await more details, we would urge the Department to look at the existing successful pre-apprenticeship programmes and learn the lessons from past traineeship policy.
There are many more things outside the levy that can really shift the dial when it comes to apprenticeship opportunities for young people and delivering the Youth Guarantee, and we look forward to continuing our work with the DfE to see through that ambition.”
At Edge, we have long called for the return of a pre-apprenticeship programme to widen access for young people, most recently in our Flex without Compromise report. However, it is important that the Government learns lessons from the previous traineeships programme to ensure that this delivers for both young people and businesses. We look forward to working with them on this.