Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

Amendments 38A, 40, 42, 48 and 173 are designed to ensure the involvement of employers and the sector skills councils in the production of apprenticeship frameworks. Amendment 38A would ensure that when preparing the drafts, the Secretary of State must consult not the persons who he thinks are appropriate, but more specifically the representatives of industry, employers, sector skills councils, sectoral bodies, the further education sector and other persons the chief executive considers appropriate. Amendment 40 would ensure that the chief executive of skills funding is required to consult employers regarding the self-specification and self-assessment parts of any apprenticeship scheme that employers provide themselves. This is in order to provide flexibility, responsiveness to employer needs, and to ensure that standards are constantly driven up. Amendment 42 requires that this process of consultation with employers, representatives of industry, sector skills councils and any other person who the Skills Funding Agency considers appropriate, starts with the first draft specification. The Bill as it stands specifies that the chief executive does not need even to consult such persons as the chief executive considers appropriate on the first draft. Can the Minister confirm that this is because extensive consultation has already been carried out on the first draft? Otherwise, I cannot understand the reasoning. Amendment 48 is consequential on these provisions and requires that representatives of industry, employers, sector skills councils and the further education sector must also be consulted if any draft modifications to the specification of apprenticeship standards for England are to be introduced. Amendment 173 requires that the person to whom the chief executive has delegated powers in order to carry out apprenticeship functions must also be responsive to employers’ needs with regard to the provision of apprenticeships. We have tabled these amendments because it seems inappropriate that the Bill does not require stronger employer involvement when the draft specifications of apprenticeship standards are being drawn up. It is simply good sense to make sure that employers are involved in the process from the very beginning. This would have a twofold advantage. First, it would mean that employers, and those representing employers, would be able to specify standards that were appropriate to them. Secondly, it would mean that standards would not then constantly have to be revisited in response to the concerns of those employers. Important groups speaking for employers have voiced their concerns in this area, and it is vital that we take their views on board. The CBI recognised that the Government’s intentions are, ""to raise both the quantity and quality of apprenticeships"—""but it strongly recommends that—"""encouraging strong employer involvement and ensuring the programme better meets the need of businesses, is the key to both increasing the number of places on offer and raising training quality"." John Lucas of the British Chambers of Commerce also stated that: ""We think that apprenticeships need to be employer-led and employer-focused"." As the Bill stands, I fear that there is not a strong enough emphasis on the importance of employer input. Even the New Statesman—that great organ of the left—acknowledged this in an article in its edition of 8 June, entitled "The Art of Vocation", in which it states approvingly, among other things, ""in Germany employers drive apprenticeships, not the state"." Furthermore, our amendments take note of the importance of consultation with the sector skills councils. They are an important intermediary and we consider them well able to represent the needs of the industry. We would therefore strongly urge that their views are taken into account. At Report stage in another place the Minister accepted my honourable friend John Hayes’ arguments for clarity in the inclusion of employer bodies in co-operation arrangements. We are grateful for this concession and the new duty on colleges to follow statutory guidance from the Secretary of State on co-operation, including with employers. That is a welcome concession indeed. Nevertheless, our fears are not yet adequately allayed and we would welcome a further statutory duty which included sector skills councils. We would like to see them incorporated into the Bill so that employers are fully represented and this two-way engagement can make apprenticeship standards higher and of even more value. I beg to move.