Today marks the start of this year’s National Apprenticeship Week, a celebration of apprenticeships designed to highlight and raise awareness of the huge contributions made by apprentices and their employers and across the country and, hopefully, encouraging more young people to give them a go.
When the New Town was first build and for a number of decades after, Crawley’s main employment sector was in light industry. Consequently, it was normal, at least for boys, leaving school to find an apprenticeship with a local company. These apprenticeships were paid for by the employer, with apprentices receiving decent wages and the promise of a career path when their apprenticeship had finished.
Things may have changed a lot since then, but one thing which hasn’t changed is that an apprenticeship is a great way to get into an industry, while both learning and earning. Unfortunately, under the Conservatives we’ve seen a steep decline in their number.
To reverse this trend, Labour wants to introduce a wage subsidy, funded from underspending of the apprenticeships levy large employers have to pay government. Backed by the Association of Employers and Learning Providers, this plan would create 100,000 new apprenticeships for 16-24 year olds, including over 9,000 in our region, giving thousands of our young people the chance to start their career on the right foot.
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Peter Lamb for Crawley 