On the 25th of February Youth Employment UK C.I.C (YEUK) hosted the Apprenticeship Debate at the We Love Apprenticeships Conference held by Apprenticeships4England. The Chair for the panel was Joshua Uwadiae who having started as an IT Apprentice at eCourier.com has now become the Chief Executive Officer at WeGym. We also had Laura-Jane Rawlings who is the Chief Executive Officer at YEUK deliver a welcome message to all who attended the debate with Rhiannon Wilson from Youth Employment UK as a co-chair for the debate. Rhiannon has been the social media and marketing apprentice for YEUK for 8 months now studying a level 3 in digital marketing.
On the panel of experts we had:
- Chloe Smith MP – MP for Norwich North and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Employment
- Will Akerman – Founder and Managing Director at MyKindaFuture
- Lauren Mistry – Head of Client Services and Content at Plotr
- Samuel Wehmeyer – Advertising Executive at Ginger Nut Media
- Fraser Ingham – Sales & Marketing Director at Skillsfirst Awards
We had a mixed audience of apprentices, colleges and employers. Joshua started off by giving a backdrop to the 3 million apprenticeships goal of the government and then handed over to Chloe Smith MP to explain the goal and what the Apprenticeship Levy will involve.
Joshua then asked everybody what it is they think is the importance of apprenticeships?
There was a good response with Jordan from Humanutopia saying that he found it to be the route right for him as he didn’t want to go to university and that he could also use it as a launch pad for his career. Chloe Smith MP mentioned that Apprenticeships are a proper alternative to University and agreed with Jordan that in some stances academic routes are given too much credit and that it should be based on personal choice and not a school’s own bias. She also mentioned that for the economy in the United Kingdom investing £1 in an apprentice you will get £18 back. Will Akerman stated that when you look at the UK economy you can definitely see a skills shortage. School leavers who do not want to go to University are a great source of untapped talent. He said that where you may have a problem over here which is the skills shortage you have the solution over there with the untapped talent. Fraser Ingham talked about the fact that with this 3 million apprenticeships goal that the Government must be able to make sure that the quality of those apprenticeships is high.
Fraser Ingham then asked of the audience, did debt worry you about University or did debt ever put you off that route? The main response from the audience being it is one main reason they did not go to university but the main deciding factor for them was that they preferred to work practically.
An Apprentice from British Airways then mentioned that he found work experience to be a key vital part in him finding his apprenticeship. Joshua then posed the question of have you had any opportunity to tell your friends about apprenticeships? To which the main response was that they wanted to hear from other young people as peer to peer and to also have those key business people share their experience.
Will Akerman and Lauren Mistry both picked up on the fact that there are now big opportunities and more potential since the apprenticeship levy. However both recognised that there is still some way to go in way of education and understanding.
Havering College then mentioned the fact that it was all around apprenticeships and that we should not belittle or insult an academic route. An academic route can be important when certain jobs require you to have a degree but that career education is a vital key for understanding this. To which Fraser Ingham Replied that this was not meant to be apprenticeships versus academia but that the apprenticeships are mainly seen as an underdog form of education.
The debate then moved on to talk about how from the experts’ perspective the apprentice is seen as more value not only from an economic perspective but that they were also more loyal, punctual and would be in employment with the same company for a longer period of time. Joshua then rounded up the debate by going through all the points that had been discussed and by adding his thoughts to each point. He then left us all with a great quote and a fantastic solution which were “A wise man once told me apprenticeships are limitless” and that “If we can use IT creative technologies in new ways we can spread the word about apprenticeships ourselves whether as a young person or an employer”
After the debate Laura-Jane and two young Apprentices from Humanutopia, Jordan and Tamara, went to tell the main conference a summary of what went on in the debate later on with them both then being invited to talk at the Careers Guidance panel later on.
After the conference Fraser Ingham then posed the question the question ‘Do young people want and value Apprenticeships? To which Ryan responded with
“It is difficult to speak for everybody as everybody’s mind set will be different towards the idea of an apprenticeship. For me, I did one out of necessity, a chance to do something I knew I would enjoy far more than the job I was doing at the time and it has been one of the best things I have done. My work place and my assessor have looked after and supported me where necessary with my apprenticeship. I am now on my level 3 B&A course after completing my level 2.
Do I think young people value them? Not really. A lot of them see it as doing a job on less money and those that I know have struggled with apprenticeships have done it the way I did – out of necessity, to say they had a job, to stay off the dole. Personally, I would say that a lack of education has left many devaluing apprenticeships.
There is a lot of misunderstanding from those tasked with setting up a placement for a learner completing an apprenticeship and the needs of the learner. Not enough questions are asked to ensure that they are pushing the learner towards a route they are more comfortable going down. Some end up in interviews for places they are not convinced they want to be in but feel forced to oblige by the centre’s ruling because they either lack self-esteem when it comes to going their own way about it or feel pushed into a sense of believing it may be their best, or only, option. Some become left in their original situation and look down on apprenticeship opportunities thereon.”
Nevertheless it was a fantastic day with some absolutely fantastic ideas from young people, employers, educators and training providers being spoken about. We thank you everyone who attended the Apprenticeship Debate and hope that you all enjoy this summary of what happened at the debate!
