North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called for Welsh Government action to remove the barriers that are preventing disabled people, Welsh speakers, females and those from low income households from undertaking apprenticeships.
Speaking in today’s Debate on the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report: ‘Apprenticeships in Wales’, Committee Member Mr Isherwood said their enquiry into Apprenticeships in Wales, “exposed concerns that the number of disabled apprentices in Wales was far below the rate achieved in England, that economic barriers are preventing young people from taking up opportunities, that a stubborn gender segregation remained, and that a lack of providers may be preventing young people from undertaking Apprenticeships through the medium of Welsh”.
He said:
“In accepting our recommendation that they should produce “a clear, disabled person specific action plan to address the under-representation of disabled people in Apprenticeships”, and after 19 years in power, the Welsh Government states that they “are committed to improving their approach”.
“They state that they “have been working with Remploy to match those who are participating in the Work Choice programme into apprenticeship opportunities” – and “have introduced a case worker approach with the aid of designated Remploy Apprenticeship Co-ordinators”.
“Last month I visited Remploy Wrexham to discuss their launch of the UK Government employment support programme, ‘Work and Health Programme Wales’, and to sit in on a training session with customers.
“The Welsh Government must therefore provide assurance that its new employability programme adds to, rather than replicates, this – and this should be included in the annual progress report on implementation of its Employability Plan that it pledged to provide to the Committee in its response to our recommendation 11.
He added: “In rejecting our recommendation that they “should provide more support to employers in raising awareness among a wider range of young people of the benefits of apprenticeships”, the Welsh Government then provides a list of the information it already provides.
“However, this neither addresses the written evidence from Remploy highlighting “that only 2.7% of learners are in work-based learning provision and 1.3% of apprentices in Wales are disabled, compared to 9% in England”, nor Remploy’s suggestion that one of the reasons for this is “a lack of awareness of apprenticeships by parents, employers and learners”.
Mr Isherwood added:
“The young people we met at the Prince’s Trust detailed the financial barriers which prevent young people from taking up apprenticeships.
“In only accepting in principle that it ‘should create a competitive hardship fund for apprentices on the lowest pay levels or create other concessions, such as concessionary bus or rail cards, as exist for other student’, the Welsh Government states that this would need to be considered ‘against the outcome of the Discounted Bus Travel for Young Persons in Wales consultation’. However, this closed 4 months ago, when the Welsh Government states that it responds to most consultations in 12 weeks.
“Although it states that subsidising travel costs is likely to be classified as a UK taxable benefit, NUS Wales point out that Local Authorities in Sheffield, Liverpool and the West Midlands have already introduced similar plans.
“Their acceptance in principle only of our recommendation that they ‘should provide the Committee with an annual update covering all protected characteristics, and access from low income communities’ is not acceptable.
“The Committee is clear that apprentices in Wales are not yet fully representative of the wider society they are drawn from.
“Reform’s recent report on the Apprenticeship programme in England concluded that if the necessary changes they describe were made, ‘then apprentices, tax payers and employers across the country stand to benefit for many years to come’. It is noted that there has not been an equivalent progress report on the apprenticeship programme in Wales.”