Conclusions and recommendations
Introduction
1. We
encourage the Government to continue to publish legislation in
draft in order to allow early Parliamentary scrutiny as well as
greater public engagement with the law-making process. In the
case of the forthcoming bill on education and skills, we encourage
the Government to publish for pre-legislative scrutiny clauses
relating to the promotion of excellence in schools and the achievement
of the objective that every school becomes a good school. (Paragraph
2)
The Government's ambitions for apprenticeships
2. We
urge the Government to investigate further the reasons for entrenched
inequalities in the apprenticeship system and to take specific,
targeted action on the basis of a sophisticated system of monitoring
participation. (Paragraph 11)
The Draft Bill and its purpose
3. We
record at the outset the general enthusiasm in evidence for apprenticeships
in principle and for the Draft Bill in seeking to raise the status
and standards of apprenticeships. (Paragraph 14)
4. We question whether
it is a good use of Parliamentary time to consider "symbolic"
legislation. (Paragraph 19)
Transferability
5. We
believe that there cannot be an automatic right to progress from
one form of learning at one level of qualification to another
form at a higher qualification, although we would expect the Government
and providers to make this as easy as possible. (Paragraph 29)
6. Unless the Government
can justify denying a young person an entitlement to an apprenticeship
at the same level as that of a qualification which they already
hold, the Government should redraft clause 21 of the Draft Bill
to remove any potential block to access. (Paragraph 30)
Young Apprenticeships
7. We
acknowledge that to introduce an entitlement to a Young Apprenticeship
for any 14 to 16-year-old who wanted one would not be legislatively
simple: it could require a definition in statute of the characteristics
of a Young Apprenticeship and of the standards which each placement
should meet. We suspect that to introduce such an entitlement
would be difficult. Nevertheless we agree that the Young Apprenticeship
scheme is a valuable one and should be encouraged and well resourced,
independently of Diplomas. (Paragraph 34)
Careers advice
8. Despite
the greater stringency of the requirements placed upon schools
by the Education and Skills Bill shortly to complete its passage
through Parliament, we nonetheless believe that any approach which
leaves discretion to schools-based careers advisers as to what
would be in a particular young person's best interests is an unnecessarily
risky one. In the short term, the effects of the obligations on
schools imposed by legislation now before Parliament should be
assessed; but we fear that the issue may need to be revisited
if experience shows that they do not have the necessary traction.
We believe that legislation should be made stronger, by requiring
schools to include clear and comprehensive information about apprenticeships
in the materials made available to learners. (Paragraph 39)
The duty to secure apprenticeship places
9. We
urge the Government to assess the scope for amending the Draft
Bill to provide comfort to employers presently reluctant to take
on young people as Young Apprentices or as Apprentices because
of health and safety considerations. (Paragraph 46)
10. We have grave
doubts about whether a statutory duty on the Learning and Skills
Council (and in due course the National Apprenticeship Service)
to secure sufficient apprenticeship placements can be met, or
met without compromising on quality. (Paragraph 47)
11. We strongly welcome
the Government's intention, articulated in the World-class Apprenticeships
strategy review paper and reiterated by Ministers in evidence,
to take steps to ensure that the public sector offers more apprenticeship
placements; and we recommend that this should be monitored and
reported on (Paragraph 48)
12. We believe that
there is significant potential for public sector organisations
to use existing posts to provide apprenticeship placements, provided
that they meet the necessary framework standards. (Paragraph 48)
Group apprenticeship schemes
13. We
strongly support the concept of group apprenticeship schemes,
and we believe that they could become one of the principal means
of encouraging small employers to offer apprenticeships. We recommend
that the Government should assess the potential of group apprenticeship
schemes and should develop models for funding and operating them.
If they prove to be viable on a larger scale, the Government,
through the proposed National Apprenticeship Service, should promote
them vigorously. (Paragraph 51)
Conclusion
14. We
invite the Government to proceed cautiously in the transfer of
responsibility for funding education and training for 16 to 18-year-olds
from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities. (Paragraph
54)
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