Sunday 7 July 2013

Set Standards


Lord Adonis (The cure for jobless youth, 2 July) joins the chorus calling for more and better apprenticeships

In the 50s, when I served a five-year engineering apprenticeship, the nationalised industries and local council direct works departments set the standards the private sector had to match, a paid day off a week to study and fees paid for two evenings at night school.

Thatcher brought that to an end and the education ministry in which Lord Adonis served did nothing to recapture the esteem in which apprenticeships were once held even though the need was glaring – at least to those of us with an industrial worker's background.

Lord Adonis now calls for government training handouts to employers. This is not the way. Instead, bring in a training levy rebated for those with approved schemes; establish modern training workshops on suitable secondary school sites for 16- to -25-year-olds; restart industrial training boards to set standards and inspect.

Future profits depend totally on well-educated and fully trained workers. They don't come cheap.

Ken Purchase
Labour MP, 1992-2010

1 comment:

  1. Private companies simply do not want to train workers themselves. They see it as yet another cost to cut. Companies prefer the State or individuals to pick up the tab. Again, it is a form of corporate welfare where the private sector wants all the benefits but none of the costs.

    I say the State ought to directly hire the unemployed at a determined wage, allowing them to gain skills while earning a paycheck. This will put a floor on wages and force the private sector to hire those workers who leave the public works program at decent wages. If companies want skilled workers they should be forced to pay them properly.

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