Calamity Cameron Strikes Again

How does he do it?  Almost everything he touches turns to dross.

This article from FE News tells the sorry story in the West Midlands, in that the new system may cause a major reduction in apprenticeship opportunities.

The West Midlands was once part of one of the heartlands of British manufacturing industry, people in the area talked of carrying the UK on its back and were not far short of the truth.  Now it is very different.

The link comes from someone in the training provision field and his comment is:

Quote:

Not so long  ago there was a hoo haa about the apprenticeship system being abused by providers having people complete in very quick times.

A major supermarket chain was putting existing staff through apprenticeships very quickly, as well as colleges bucking the system with apprentices not even having an employer and attending classes full time.  Apprentice hair dressers who’d never actually cut hair etc.

So, the Govt response was put a minimum time condition of a year on apprenticeships. An approach not unlike fishing with explosives.

Now, In my humble opinion, what we’ll get is the big companies who have to pay the levy, spending it on upskilling or skill confirmation of existing employees and SME’s, who have to cough a substantial amount, reverting to how it was in the 90’s when everyone wanted trained staff but weren’t prepared to invest in training.

Unquote.

The longer history of all this is complicated and the upshot seems to be that the more the government fiddles and meddles, almost invariably on the basis of out of date information, the worse it becomes and still we have chronic skills shortages in key areas.

Just what are all those untrained youngsters going to be doing in the near future and who will take the jobs that are going?