Apprenticeships

What a pleasure it is to join this vital debate on one of my favourite subjects—apprenticeships. I start by paying tribute to the coalition Government and the Minister for rightly identifying apprenticeships as a crucial part of improving the nation's skill base, helping business grow and providing the young with genuine future opportunities. My constituency, Gloucester, is famous for making things, so I was an early convert to the concept and practice of apprenticeships. That is why I first spoke in this House to support the additional apprenticeships funded in the emergency Budget of May last year and urged the Minister even then to do more. That is why I recruited my own apprentice at the beginning of this year and am collating data on all Members to ensure that we hold the Minister to the generous promise he gave in a Westminster Hall debate to provide a reception for the first 100 apprentices employed by MPs. Let us hold him to that promise. Today, the Minister highlighted his intention to fund higher apprenticeships in several sectors and I hope that inspires the insurance company, Ecclesiastical, which is headquartered in Gloucester, and banks such as the Co-op, which I hope will shortly take over the former Cheltenham & Gloucester branches, to join other sectors in taking on apprentices. The Minister also highlighted moves to incentivise SMEs to take on apprentices and I hope that they will respond. I believe that there is a challenge here, not in the funding, the will or the incentives—those are in place—but in business confidence and the time of very small businesses to absorb the details of new schemes. My first recommendation to the Under-Secretary of State for Education, the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), concerns the National Apprenticeship Service, which has done a fantastic job. I pay tribute to Gina Johnson of the NAS, who did a great job in Gloucestershire—I am sure her successor will do the same. The NAS has only one representative per county. I believe it needs to adopt some modern marketing techniques, such as having superb DVDs available on its website that can be shown by the Federation of Small Businesses and local chambers of trade and commerce to inspire the smallest employers to take on apprentices. I urge the Minister to consider that. Secondly, all Members of the House could champion apprenticeship fairs in their constituency. I know the one that I helped to organise last year in Gloucestershire, which the Minister kindly came to, was incredibly positive and is part of the reason new start-up apprenticeships in our city doubled between 2009 and 2011 from 510 to 1,020. The fair contributed to the extraordinary increase across the county, where there are now more than 4,000 apprenticeships. Thirdly, we are fortunate in Gloucester to have the extremely proactive Gloucestershire media and the local newspaper, The Citizen, which launched the 100 apprenticeships in 100 days campaign that has been widely copied around the United Kingdom. In 2012 it is launching the Gloucestershire apprenticeship awards. This happy event is taking place on my birthday and I hope very much to launch the MP for Gloucester's female apprentice of the year award at that happy occasion. I urge other Members to consider doing likewise. Fourthly, every local enterprise partnership should have a spokesperson for apprentices, as we do in Gloucester, in order to encourage employers to push the apprenticeship agenda forward and benefit from this growth opportunity. It can also encourage local content of public sector contracts, such as the one for the Gloucester academy, which is very important. Lastly, I urge all schools to bring their pupils to local apprenticeship fairs, recognising that the sky is the limit for apprenticeships and that this is a great way forward for many young people.