There's news about a worrying drop in the number of new apprentices taken by 16-18 year-olds and 19-24-year-olds. Although the number of apprenticeships has increased overall by 15%, many of these are as a result of a fourfold increase in the over 25s taking apprenticeships.
So what's going on?
Unsurprisingly the politicians are blaming each other. David Willetts, the shadow minister for universities and skills, said. "Gordon Brown promised more opportunities for school-leavers, yet today we discover there has been a significant fall in the number of teenagers and young adults starting an apprenticeship. We must help young people through the recession, but Labour has created a lost generation." The Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills returned fire by saying, "We want apprenticeships to be a mainstream option for young people and are taking forward a range of measures, as part of our 16-18 apprenticeships action plan, to increase the number of apprenticeships available for 16- to 18-year-olds." Gordon Brown also announced an extra £140 million to fund another 35,000 apprenticeships.
According to Tom Mursell from notgoingtouni.co.uk we shouldn't be too depressed about the figures but it's important to learn the lessons about what the drop in young people tells us. "One way of looking at the statistics is that it's clear that more people overall are looking at the opportunity apprenticeships give and seeing the incredible value they have," says Tom. "There were nearly 200,000 new apprentices starting in a year - so they've got something going for them." "We speak to thousands of school-leavers and the message we get from them is that there is still far too much pressure on young people to go to university as the only option. Parents, teachers, careers advisers, many still see anything that isn't a degree as somehow failing and that's simply not true. There are lots of alternatives to uni and all of them can result in a great career."
Aside from this pressure that gets put on young people, which understandably puts them off continuing their education or training, Tom says that there is still a lot of work to be done on changing the perception of apprenticeships. "It's essential that work is done on redefining apprenticeships. If you talk to any young people about what apprenticeships are, there's still the idea that it's an option if you want to be a plumber only. That's true, you can do an apprenticeship to become a plumber, but there are also some amazing schemes that allow you to earn while you learn to be anything from an accountant to a graphic designer."
If you're one of the 935,000 people aged 16 to 24 who find yourself not in education, employment or training (NEET) then let us know how you feel about this issue. What do you think the truth is? Do you feel like a member of the "lost generation", or do you believe apprentices are being properly supported by the government? If you're interested in looking at apprenticeships or any other route into employment then there's more info for you here at notgoingtouni.co.uk.
