UK firms pledge to create 20,000 new apprenticeship places as job vacancies rise at fastest rate in 4 years

  • Lloyds Bank, British Airways and BT among firms to offer new placements
  • Salaries also rising at fastest pace since 2007

By Matt West

PUBLISHED: 03:58 EST, 7 March 2014 | UPDATED: 04:05 EST, 7 March 2014

British companies pledged today to create more than 20,000 new apprenticeships.

Firms including Lloyds Bank, British Airways, BT, Network Rail and O2 as well as a host of local authorities made the announcement as National Apprenticeship Week came to a close today.

Half of the employers creating new places this week are small and medium sized enterprises.

Business Secretary Vince Cable hailed the creation of the apprenticeships as further evidence of the government’s efforts to put ‘an end to the damaging divide between vocational and academic learning.’

Apprentice plan: UK companies have announced they will create a further 20,000 apprenticeships this year

Apprentice plan: UK companies have announced they will create a further 20,000 apprenticeships this year

‘We are committing the biggest ever investment in apprenticeships and are on track to create two million apprenticeships over the course of this Parliament,’ he said.

 

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‘The resounding success of this year's National Apprenticeship Week demonstrates that apprenticeships are deservedly becoming more popular with business of all sizes. Apprentices already contribute £1.8billion to the economy and with these further commitments, thousands more people will now be able to get the practical skills they need to build careers and help firms grow.’

But critics have called on the government to do more to help young people into work.
Greener Journeys, which promotes sustainable travel, said the government should launch concessionary bus travel for young people in the first year of their apprenticeship to make it easier and cheaper for them to commute to work by bus.

Meanwhile the University and College Union called for apprentices to be paid the minimum wage, adding the hourly pay of some meant they would get paid more if they worked on a newspaper delivery round.  

It also said apprenticeships should last a minimum of three years to ensure they provided a well-rounded education.

It came as a report showed the number of permanent job vacancies on offer rose at its fastest pace for nearly four years in February.

Salaries were also shown to have picked up in the month, the closely watch KPMG/Recruitment and Employment Confederation index revealed.

The monthly index rose to 65.2 in February, its highest level since March 2010, versus 62.1 in January and well above the 50 mark that signals growth.

The survey, compiled by data firm Markit, showed that salaries for permanent staff increased at the fastest rate since October 2007 although the number of temporary billings eased.

The rise in job vacancies is yet another sign the economy is recovering although the Bank of England maintains it is not yet firing on all cylinders.

The Bank last month stated the link between so-called ‘spare capacity’ - the difference between how much the economy is growing by and its potential level of growth -  predominantly in the labour market is now its main consideration in any decision on interest rates.

Britain's jobless rate edged up unexpectedly for the first time in nearly a year in the three months to December, a week after its previously rapid fall had forced the Bank to stress that it was in no rush to raise interest rates.

Economists believe unemployment will fall in the current quarter and thereafter, to reach 6.7 per cent by the end of the year.

REC chief executive Kevin Green said: ‘This month’s figures show the second highest ever results in permanent placements since Report on Jobs began in 1997.

‘The positive trend of rising vacancies continues and this is supported by our jobs outlook data on employers’ hiring intentions that shows businesses will be taking on more workers in 2014 as their confidence grows.’



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The worst thing that this country did was to abandon manufacturing and rely on service industries. I had a decent apprenticeship in the 1960's, a great time but not much money then, but working for German, Swiss and Japanese companies since has made up for that many times over.

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2 million apprenticeships over 5 years? What rot. There ate only 720,000 kids in any school leaving year and 43% go to university,so the government claims everybody else gets an apprenticeship.

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Where did you 2 million come from?:

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Well it is good news that the number of companies recognising the value of apprenticeships, as opposed to academically qualified/experienced employees is increasing but to properly rebalance the UK economy they need to be planning 200k not 20k pa! Too much is expected of our education system from being surrogate parents to providing business with fully trained individuals - if there is a skill shortage it is because business is not training employees in the skills it requires! Ditto for the banks who argue they have to pay to attract/retain talent - answer train them yourself then you could pay less! Some business may try offering 'dubious' apprenticeships, but it is the responsibility of government/industry to vet the training offered to ensure it is not exploitation of a loophole to avoid minimum wage legislation - every problem has a solution if we exploit the grey matter between our ears instead of exploiting young people!

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aprentiships are not cheap labour, you work and learn your trade. in the 70/80s the unions ruined the apprentice system by demanding 80 % of trades man wage for first year apprentices, the scheme was decimated and lots of youngsters never got the training thats one reason for our skills shortage now. if you go back far enough apprentices did not get paid or even had to pay for their training

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Companies offer apprenticeships.......some people moan........companies don't offer apprenticeships......some people moan......strange that.

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Apprenticeships are a legal means allowing companies to pay less than the minimum wage because the apprentice is classified as being in education. They even get tax breaks worth more than the pay they do give the apprentice Win Win for the companies. As previously stated 'Cheap Labour = More Profit'.

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Well that may be, I was referring to real ones I suppose, engineering, we need many many more of these and the pay for engineers once qualified needs to be much better, as in Germany. Why would anyone do an apprenticeship in anything that didn't provide a trade or profession at the end of it?

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Complete tosh. I completed an apprenticeship in engineering after 4 years of work, learning and study at college in the 1960's. I had one day and 3 evenings at college and was paid lower wages but I didn't mind because I was trained to become a skilled man, not a part skilled as is the norm these days.

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Cheap labour for the companies ,more profit ! I've seen apprenticeships appearing in jobs that you could learn in 1 hour like "apprentice warehouse worker" .These are fake apprenticeships to get cheap labour.

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Don't generalise. My son is doing a good engineering apprenticeship where the company has made the decision so that they have fully trained staff when some of the older workers retire. He's treated really well, gets good benefits and is doing one day a week at college.

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Yes but an engineering apprenticeship sounds like a genuine one.I've seen quite a few for jobs that don't require much skill.

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Were are all the 16 and 17 year old working in the supermarkets and shops? This used to be the first step but has been taken away.

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By labour policy!

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There was nothing wrong with A level students working part-time. It gave them a new rage of skills

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In our very small business, we have put through proportionally a good amount of apprentices. At the present time, we are not prepared to do it again. The kids are totally ill prepared for the world of work. Please, if you are a parent, its not you looking for the job its your child, so its them an employer needs to speak to, not you.

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The MEDIA, particularly the BBC has already started to pour 'COLD' water over these apprenticeships. It is businesses way of getting cheap Labour. It they were only open to British people they would NEVER be filled. We should they get out of Bed when they can claim Benefits from the time they leave school. No one under the age of 21 should be allowed to claim benefits. Maybe then we will see the 16 -24 year old unemployment figures, start to fall. Wrong to paint ALL young uns the same. But if we are HONEST this effects 70%, if not a little more.

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