Apprentices are workforce of the future

Mar 6 2009 by Phil Young, The Journal

IT was Franklin Roosevelt’s adviser Harry Hopkins who said: “Give a man the dole and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a job and you save both his body and his spirit.”

That is exactly what the American Government did in 1935, creating work for over two million people a month at a time when one in four were out of work.

This was achieved by building 650,000 miles of roads, 124,000 bridges and over 8,000 parks as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal programme. Slums were demolished, power taken to every remote village, creating a marked and unrivalled change in the quantity and quality of the country’s infrastructure.

In 2009, the British Government has looked to invest in our infrastructure, not on the same scale, quite rightly, the issues of pollution and climate change call for a more modest plan.

However, as usual, this government aims to create projects and much needed jobs for all parts of the country except the North East.

The closest any of this work comes to our region is Dishforth, in North Yorkshire, and as this was already programmed for spring, before the package was announced. It shows the £6bn package offers the region nothing.

So, construction businesses will continue to struggle along with the rest of the British economy, rather than kick-starting the North East’s drive out of recession.

At a time when we should be preparing for a new influx of employees leaving school in July, we are actually paying off apprentices and closing down training initiatives.

Those companies with a bit more sense and an eye on the future are at least attempting to keep their trainees and look to make savings elsewhere. It is true these young people are currently adding least value to the business. However, these are the very people who will be our workforce going forward and we must look at ways of protecting that future.

Easy to say, particularly for the SME businesses who have only got one or two apprentices, and I appreciate it’s a big ask. But is there not a way of collaborative working among employers in the region?

Is it possible to create an apprenticeship pool where young people can be supported by working for a number of employers, depending upon workload? Yes, they will have to move around a bit more and there are health and safety as well as HR issues, but it reduces the burden on individual employers while maintaining our future prospects.

The apprentices will actually gain some valuable experience by working in different environments, potentially making them even more of an asset when completing their training.

Our medium-term recovery prospects will not be helped if the skills of workers in the construction, engineering and associated trades are laid to waste. The old approach will reduce running costs – just make sure you won’t be needing their skills, talent and youth in the future.

For more information on Constructing Excellence in the North East, please contact regional director Catriona Lingwood, on (0191) 383-7435 or catriona@constructing excellence-ne.org.uk.

Phil Young is executive director, Partnerships for Futures