The Draft Apprenticeships Bill

Apprenticeships have a long history and are widely recognised as a powerful form of learning. Not all young people thrive in a school or college environment: some find the world of work more stimulating and a better place to learn. The Committee welcomes much of the Government's policy in seeking to raise the standards of apprenticeships, including some of the measures contained within the Draft Apprenticeships Bill. They are not convinced, however, that legislation is strictly necessary to achieve this. The real bite in the Draft Bill lies in the duty to be placed on the Learning and Skills Council (and, in due course, successor bodies), to secure the availability of apprenticeship places for anyone above compulsory school age but under 19, and who holds the necessary entry level requirements. Given the economic downturn, they have grave doubts about whether such a statutory duty can be met. Even if it can, it is feared that the pressure of that duty could lead to the quality of apprenticeships being compromised. The Government's aspiration for a greater supply of apprenticeships and greater diversity of entry to apprenticeships is very much dependent for success on the ability of the public sector to take up the apprenticeship challenge. The Committee also strongly supports group apprenticeship schemes, in which an organisation would have links to smaller firms which, singly, would find it difficult to offer the breadth of experience or continuity of work required for an apprenticeship. Concerns about the impact of the challenging economic circumstances extend beyond apprenticeships. The Government plans to introduce legislation in the 2008-09 Parliamentary Session to transfer responsibility for funding and delivering education and training for 16 to 18-year-olds from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities. This will be a dramatic change and, caution is strongly urged

This is the Commitee's scrutiny of the draft Apprenticeships Bill which was published on 16 July 2008. While putting much of the current arrangements for apprenticeships onto a statutory basis, the draft Bill provides greater flexibility to allow employers to design and bring forward for approval their own apprenticeship frameworks. The extent of this flexibility was not clear as a key document, the specification of apprenticeship standards, which will determine the core components of frameworks was not published with the draft Bill. Nor did the Government set out in detail how the National Apprenticeship Service would be resourced or organised, or how the legislation would apply in Wales. These as key omissions impeded the scrutiny process. With this in mind it was concluded that in general the legislation is justified because it has the potential to strengthen the structure for apprenticeshipsin England. However there was a major concern of volume at the expense of quality.The Government must ensure that the draft Bill is re-written to promote, monitor and report on the quality of apprenticeships. Without provisions underpinning quality, the legislation risks the devaluation of apprenticeships, and employers, parents and young people as well as adults will cease to see apprenticeships as a progressive route through to a future career.

Dated July 2008, Contains foreword, draft Bill and explanatory notes

The draft Apprenticeships Bill published as Cm. 7452 (ISBN 9780101745222)

Government response to the fourth report (HC 1082, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215525376).The draft Apprenticeships Bill published as Cm. 7452 (ISBN 9780101745222)

Government response to HC 1062-I, session 2007-08 (ISBN 9780215525369). The draft Apprenticeships Bill published as Cm. 7452 (ISBN 9780101745222)

This paper comprises a summary of consultation responses to the draft programme published in Command paper Cm. 7372 (May 2008, ISBN 9780101737227) as amended by Command paper Cm. 7411 (ISBN 9780101741125) and a response in the form of the changes that have been made to the programme that was announced in the Queen's speech on 3 December 2008 (Unnumbered command paper, ISBN 9780101563123).