Forget university – work your way up, minister urges school leavers

MORE school leavers should join companies and work their way up from the shop floor instead of taking a degree, the Education Secretary says.

Damian Hinds believes three years’ experience at entry level can be just as valuable as university, as it fosters a deep ‘understanding of the craft’.

He wants more youngsters aiming for white collar roles to go straight into work through the Government’s new ‘high-quality’ apprenticeships.

Workers can earn while they learn rather than being saddled with up to £50,000 of debt at university.

Mr Hinds’s father started out as an apprentice pharmacist aged 17 and worked his way up to a senior role at what is now GlaxoSmithKline.

Apprenticeships fell out of favour over the past few decades, but under radical reforms they are now being brought back in a ‘renaissance’ for all the old traditional white collar roles. School leavers can now become apprentice accountants, actuaries and teachers, with more roles in the pipeline. These jobs previously would have required degrees.

‘ There is a real value in actual work as well as study,’ Mr Hinds said. ‘An apprenticeship is one way of doing that.

‘When I talk to chief executives, they will tell you there is no more compelling story than being able to identify somebody in a senior or board level position who has worked their way up that company from the shop floor.

‘The Americans talk about the American Dream. We don’t have a phrase to encapsulate that but I think people feel it. You should be able to go as far as your talents can take you.

‘With a good high- quality apprenticeship to get you on your way, that opens up that possibility to far more people.’ Mr Hinds yesterday launched a campaign to make sixth formers and their parents aware of the opportunities his new apprenticeships afford.

The firms involved usually recruit graduates. They include Siemens, Capgemini, Ernst & Young, Lloyds Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, Coca-Cola, PwC, IBM and Nestle.

Mr Hinds’s father, Frank, spent his Saturdays and Wednesday evenings studying while working as an apprentice pharmacist in Belfast, before moving to England to work in a shop and eventually joining the Wellcome Foundation.

‘Experience in entry-level work – for many of us we would say later on in our careers that we really benefited from having had a chance to do that,’ Mr Hinds said.

‘It was always something I was brought up with – understanding work and understanding all the things that go to make up that operation. In the case of my father, being a pharmacist, you start by learning about all the different jars in the pharmacy, and then how you mix up medicines and eventually when you are a qualified pharmacist, then you can prescribe. The most basic level things are important to understanding the craft and the profession.’

Mr Hinds said many pupils still thought university was the only route, which he called a ‘one-track thought’. He added: ‘We have to change perceptions. In the last few years there really has been this renaissance in apprenticeships.’

Apprenticeships are partly funded via a levy on firms.

‘Renaissance in apprenticeships’