Apprenticeships down 22% in Crawley since 2016

This week is National Apprenticeship Week, yet as the country takes the chance to mark the opportunity which an apprenticeship can offer a young worker, new analysis from Crawley Labour reveals apprenticeships have fallen 22% since 2016 in Crawley.

Apprenticeship starts have fallen from 940 in 2016 to just 730 in the latest figures. To reverse this downwards trend Labour will train over a thousand new careers advisors to provide professional advice and guidance at schools and colleges, alongside high-quality work experience for young people.

As part of a wider package of reform, Labour will establish Skills England, a new national body tasked with driving forward an ambition to meet the skills needs of the next decade. This will be driven by pushing power and decisions on skills spending out from Westminster to local communities, so those communities can better match up skills training with their local business needs and grow local and regional economies.

Commenting on the figures, Peter Lamb–Labour candidate for Crawley–said:

“Families in Crawley want to see their children do well and get on in life, and apprenticeships are a great way of doing exactly that. Unfortunately, the reality is that under the Conservatives fewer and fewer young people are getting the opportunity to take up a place.

“Labour will reverse this trend, giving businesses the flexibility they need to train people up with new skills from digital technologies to the green skills needed to tackle climate change.”