Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, we acknowledge the enormous efforts of the noble Lord, Lord Young, the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, and their Bill team in taking on board the concerns and arguments which came from all parts of the Chamber in Committee. It is a testament to the hard work of all concerned that we now see so many government amendments in the final stages of the Bill. Most of the government amendments in this group are designed to adapt the Bill to the amendment tabled in Committee by myself and my noble friends Lord Hunt of Wirral and Lady Verma, which was then voted into the Bill. The purpose of this amendment was to provide a statutory definition of an apprenticeship, and a definition still seems sensible and necessary. The Government trumpeted the arrival of this Bill, saying that it would bring in a statutory entitlement to an apprenticeship for 16 to 18 year-olds. A definition of that entitlement therefore seemed, to us and many others, crucial. Apprentices, employers, employees and the wider public need absolute clarity about what this entails and what the qualification means. As the noble Lord, Lord Young, said in Committee in June, the Bill is not just about creating more apprenticeships but about ensuring that they remain a respected brand, with people feeling that they are being given a real career opportunity and delivered a quality experience. We are delighted, therefore, to welcome the government amendments, which have taken on board our key concerns that a statutory definition of an apprenticeship should include a requirement for: both on-the-job and off-the-job training; training in the relevant occupational competencies and technical knowledge, which will require using the practices, equipment and personnel of the job; and training which will lead to the relevant and recognised level of proficiency in a specific trade or occupation. Ideally, we would have liked to see a clear definition at the start of the Bill, as in the amendment we voted in at Committee. Nevertheless we accept the Government’s word that, given the structure of the rest of the Bill, our definition might have created difficulties in legal terms. We therefore accept the Government’s amendments, which we feel help to define the brand more fully as a starting point. As the Minister will have heard time and again, we have been worried about the potential damage to the apprenticeship brand. In 2006, the Adult Learning Inspectorate warned: ""Some apprentices can potentially achieve the full requirements of the apprenticeship framework without having to set foot in a workplace"." Furthermore, in 2008 Ofsted confirmed in its report entitled The Impact of Programme-Led Apprenticeships that many of the apprenticeships created by the Government were, in fact, virtual without much contact or training with an employer at all. We are therefore pleased that the Government have conceded that further clarification was necessary. We welcome also the Government’s intentions regarding a pre-apprenticeship contract, which would make it possible for work-based training to remain a useful and important part of the preparation for the workplace but separate from the more specific apprenticeship brand. We welcome it because we have long called for more emphasis on pre-apprenticeship training and we have appreciated its importance to people, particularly in a time of economic difficulty when training and reskilling become even more important. We are most concerned that there should be a firm and resolute reassurance that the pre-apprenticeship contract will not form part of the apprenticeship. I think I heard the Minister say that the apprenticeship would start only when the apprentice was employed. Perhaps, in due course, he would confirm that for me. I also gather from his words that the period for this pre-apprenticeship will be only up to six months. Again, perhaps he could inform us what would happen if an apprentice were unable to find an employment contract after that six-month period. What risk is there that it might creep into a longer-term pre-apprenticeship? Would the young person be made redundant, or would they continue under the term "training contract" rather than "apprenticeship"? There are many options and we must be absolutely clear what the results will be. In conclusion, does the Minister wish to expand on the impact that he feels the Bill will have on the apprenticeships market? Given that the number of new apprenticeships has dramatically fallen this year, do the Government hope that this Bill will provide the answer?