Crackdown over fake apprenticeship schemes
THE Government is to prosecute rogue training providers offering dodgy apprenticeship schemes.
The move comes after a consultation this summer found that youngsters were being lured into apprenticeships offering only low-level training.
Two employers told the Government that they had been forced to turn away job applicants who were severely underqualified at the end of ‘apprenticeship schemes’ done elsewhere.
Construction company Balfour Beatty and SJD Electrical told Ministers of cases where so-called apprentices had never been in real jobs.
The full response will be published tomorrow, but Skills Minister Nick Boles promised apprentices similar legal protection to university students.
The Government is committed to helping create three million new apprenticeships by 2020.
But examples of misuse of the term included young people thinking they had completed an apprenticeship when they hadn’t; youngsters having to find other employers to achieve the qualifications required; and workers entering the industry part-qualified without adequate experience or skills.
New powers to prosecute training providers misusing the term will be in the Enterprise Bill, which had its first hearing in the House of Lords last week. In future anyone offering ‘fake’ or lowquality apprenticeship training could be fined or face prosecution in a magistrates’ court.
Boles explained: ‘Everyone knows what a university degree means. It’s an official title.
‘Young people doing apprenticeships should get the same level of distinction. Defining the word apprenticeship in law will ensure people get the best training and opportunities.’
Ruth Devine, a director at SJD Electrical, a family firm in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, said: ‘A number of applicants applying for jobs thought they had completed apprenticeships, but were surprised to find that they were not fully qualified.’
Balfour Beatty chief executive Leo Quinn said: ‘Protecting and enhancing apprenticeships as proposed by the Enterprise Bill will further build the status of apprenticeships and help to encourage business to invest in them.
‘It is crucial that apprenticeships remain world class.’