Small firms lead the way for training
Mar 3 2008 by Kevin Rowan for The Journal
WHAT a pleasure it was to see the North East’s own John Wright on the national web pages of the TUC.
John, national chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, was adding his weight to the trade union campaign for better pay for apprentices.
The TUC are calling for a minimum wage for apprentices doing a 35-hour week of £110, which equates to the youth rate of the national minimum wage, £3.40 per hour.
Both the TUC and the FSB recognise that increasing the take up of apprenticeships and improving the level of completions are important for future economic success.
The Modern Apprenticeship Task Force identified a direct link between poor pay and low completion rates for apprentices, a situation which greatly frustrates employers providing apprenticeship opportunities, dissuading them from doing so in the future.
Improving pay will be a major contributor to encouraging apprentices to complete their training. It is important too for more employers to provide opportunities for apprenticeships and to also tackle the lack of diversity within apprenticeship provision.
As we approach International Women’s Day this Saturday the UK economy remains rife with occupational segregation.
To start to challenge this, more young women and men need to be encouraged to pursue non-traditional apprenticeship roles.
Employers and other organisations, such as Equality North East’s ‘If I can, you can’ initiative, are making progress here, but even the most cursory glance at the labour market shows we still have a long way to go.
The role of small businesses is critical here and it is great for the region that John Wright is helping to influence the national agenda.
It may surprise many that small businesses in fact provide the majority of apprentice opportunities, at 69% of the total, supported by an important government-funded wage subsidy for each apprentice. In the North East we enjoy relatively high levels of apprentices, up from particularly low rates in the 1980s and 1990s, but we need to do better.
We often hear about the ‘burden on business’ and how difficult it is to take on new responsibilities, especially for small businesses. Not in this case. Praise is due to the FSB for leading the way, emphasising how important this agenda is, and delivering on it by providing more apprentice opportunities than larger companies. It’s time for all employers to step up.
