Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

We welcome the fact that in this group of Amendments 65, 67, 68, 69 and 70A—of which Amendments 67 and 70A are in the names of my noble friend Lady Verma and myself—as well as in Amendments 66 and 71 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, so many noble Lords seem to agree, as the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, has said, that the Bill should not be left with a rather imprecise provision that those providing careers education in schools should be left with the power to decide which pupils it might be in the best interests of to give advice relating to apprenticeships. There seems to be a broad level of agreement that there is a deficit of information about apprenticeships in the careers advice currently offered to school students. My honourable friend John Hayes, speaking in another place, described the Bill as a missed opportunity for careers advice and guidance, and this is exactly what Clause 35 represents. As I read it, the Bill does not give any grounds upon which such advice should be given. We agree with others who have spoken that this may prejudice the rights of some pupils. We think it wrong that there is a risk that the advice you receive "in your best interests" may depend on how ambitious your school is or on how much emphasis it places on the importance of vocational careers. All of these amendments seem to recognise this and search for a way to ensure that pupils are given the maximum amount of advice which will then allow them to make an informed choice—several noble Lords have mentioned this—rather than leaving them dependent on whether their careers adviser has faith in apprenticeships or, indeed, faith in the pupil being suited to the scheme. The noble Baroness, Lady Garden, rightly quoted from the report by your Lordships’ Select Committee on Economic Affairs entitled, Apprenticeship: a key route to skill. In 2008, a study by YouGov found that only 24 per cent of teachers agreed that apprenticeships were a good alternative to A-levels; by comparison, 55 per cent of employers and 52 per cent of young people thought so. The recipients of education and the people from whom they will need jobs once their education is finished seem to have got the idea, yet the educational profession still seems to lag behind. We need to ensure that advice about apprenticeships is given to all and that it is set in the context of a programme of training leading to a professional occupation.