Clause 10
6:45 pm
John Hayes (Shadow Minister, Innovation, Universities and Skills; South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
If the history of apprenticeships were rather different, if we had not had analysis that suggests that some apprenticeships are not work-based, or at least have not been so historically, if academics had not claimed—I think authoritatively—that it has been possible to be an apprentice historically without setting a single foot in the workplace, if we did not know that some of the so-called employers are training providers whose job it is to sell apprenticeships and nothing else, and if we did not have the difficulty of programme-led apprenticeships, which the Minister implicitly and intrinsically acknowledged were a problem, then I might be minded to withdraw the amendment. But as all those things are so, it is critical that we define what an apprenticeship constitutes on the face of the Bill. That is in the interests of all of us who want apprenticeships to be of growing significance in meeting Britain’s skills gap to make our country more economically competitive. I do not doubt that he shares that ambition and I invite him to vote with the Opposition when I press this matter to a vote.