The latest general election from update from Chipping Barnet Conservative candidate Theresa Villiers focuses on apprenticeships:
“Apprenticeships are a crucial way to give people the skills they need to get well paid jobs and great careers. They can provide a ladder of opportunity to enable young people to get on in life and achieve their ambitions.
They are an engine of social mobility.
They also boost our economy because a workforce with better skills is more productive.
For all these reasons, I have worked to expand access to apprenticeships whilst serving as MP for Chipping Barnet.
I sat around the Cabinet table when the decisions were made to introduce the Apprenticeship Levy which has provided millions of pounds for new apprenticeships.
This Government has delivered nearly 5.8 million apprenticeships since it returned to office, including 5000 in the Chipping Barnet constituency.
I’ve taken a particular interest in apprenticeships in the bio-sciences sector as one of the big potential growth industries of the future.
I have hosted a skills and apprenticeships fair and spoken to local businesses and young people about the importance of these programmes.
Just a week or two ago I was pleased to drop into the Bayleaf restaurant in Whetstone to meet an apprentice working there and hear about her positive experience of learning at work.
I have heard from local people studying for degree apprenticeships at Middlesex University. Our local university has some excellent courses combining in-work learning and academic study. I was especially impressed with the healthcare programmes and was delighted to meet healthcare assistants training for nursing qualifications via apprenticeships.
There is a clear need for more staff in the NHS and these degree apprenticeships are a great way for the NHS to recruit from within to fill vacancies. It has been inspiring to hear from young people who say they would have found it impossible to get a qualification without the opportunity provided by an apprenticeship. It is also brilliant that Middlesex’s cohort of degree apprentices is so ethnically and culturally diverse.
I’ve enjoyed visiting Barnet and Southgate college to meet talented apprentices there, for example in fashion. I’ve used National Apprenticeship Week as an opportunity to meet up with College staff and students.
As a backbench MP, I have been a member of the APPG for Apprenticeships for some years and have been involved with many discussions on how we convince young people to consider this career option. I was pleased to see the reform enacted which adds apprenticeships to the UCAS process. I believe this will provide school leavers with a more transparent picture of their options, enabling them to compare university degrees with apprenticeships more easily.
I’ve also spoken directly to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan on ways to ensure that the Apprenticeship Levy is fully utilised.
I have challenged Ministers to do more to enable small businesses to take on apprentices.
I want to make it simpler and less bureaucratic for small businesses to run apprenticeship programmes.
Progress has been made. For example, the Government is fully funding young people (up to the age of 21) to do an apprenticeship in SMEs and increasing the amount of money Apprenticeship Levy payers can give to SMEs to hire an apprentice. Thanks to Conservative reforms, 70 per cent of occupations are covered by apprenticeships.
But we want to go further. Our plan for the economy includes delivering 100,000 more apprenticeships every year by the end of the next Parliament, funded by changing the law to close the poorest performing university courses.
Labour would halve the number of apprenticeships by allowing 50 per cent of Apprenticeship Levy funds to go to other non-apprenticeship training. The IFS have said that broadening the levy in this way creates a ‘significant risk’ that it ‘simply pays for training that would have already taken place’.
I believe Labour’s approach to apprenticeships would curtail opportunities for young people. It would be a backwards step after so much has been achieved over recent years.
If you want an MP who will champion apprenticeships and work to make them available to as many young people as possible, please give me your vote on 4th July.”
