Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation
About the REC
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation is the professional body dedicated to representing the interests of the recruitment industry. We represent 3,700 corporate members, with more than 8,000 branches in all regions of the UK, and 6,000 individual members of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals. The industry as a whole was worth some £25 billion in 2010–11, despite the testing economic conditions.
Executive Summary
The REC strongly supports the extension of apprenticeships across the economy, as a valuable way to improve the long-term skills development structure. In December 2011, REC members met with BIS Committee Chair Adrian Bailey MP to discuss the key issues around apprenticeships, which are reflected in the submission below:
Recruiters’ expertise in finding otherwise unreachable candidates for their clients stands true for apprenticeships: they can play a vital role in particular helping SMEs to access this new candidate pool.
However it is proving difficult so far for recruiters to do so in great numbers, due both to the market conditions making it hard for SMEs to plan long-term, and to the higher workload involved in convincing some clients of the value of this path.
More broadly, we have concerns on several points:
the tapering of funding may be a disincentive for higher-level apprenticeships, which are important in attracting people into the apprenticeship route in the first place;
cuts to the careers advice system will prevent young people understanding apprenticeships, reducing intake;
short courses being inappropriately billed as “apprenticeships” devalues the label; and
the completion rate must be monitored, to ensure long-term skills are being improved.
General Points on Apprenticeships
1. Apprenticeships are essential not only in addressing the current youth employment crisis, but also in improving the longer-term skills development structure. As such, it is good to see the cross-party support for this approach.
2. Many young people value the idea of being ‘three years ahead’ of their peers, by entering the paid workforce rather than higher education.
3. Attractive progression routes are vital to the success of the system—having higher level apprenticeships makes entering the system more attractive to talented young people. In this regard, we feel that the tapering of funding is a risk, as these higher apprenticeships which will draw people in receive less funding and so will be fewer in number. We urge that the impact of this tapering be closely monitored, and the number of higher-level apprenticeships assessed regularly.
4. A joined-up approach with the education system is absolutely vital. Careers advice is central to this; young people need expert advice, which teachers cannot be expected to provide alone, if they are to understand the full value of apprenticeships as an option. The Government’s cuts to careers advice pose a risk to the uptake of apprenticeships, and are only storing up problems for the future.
5. Whilst we are convinced of the value of apprenticeships for young people looking to enter the world of work, our members have queried whether they are the most appropriate route for people already in the workforce, particularly those further into their career. We believe the Committee should explore this question.
Apprenticeships and the Recruitment Industry
6. The recruitment industry’s awareness of apprenticeships, both for developing their own staff and for placing into clients continues to increase. Recruiters are keen to engage with these offerings, and particularly to help spread the availability of apprentices to SMEs, where penetration is low.
7. As part of their commitment to the REC’s Youth Employment Charter, many recruiters are already going into local schools to help young people understand their career options. This includes explaining the value of apprenticeships as an option.
8. Recruiters can currently find it difficult to ‘sell’ apprenticeships to their clients as an employment option, particularly given the market conditions. Clients often see apprenticeships as cumbersome. This requires recruiters to put in additional time and resource to convince clients of the value of this route, despite the limited profitability this offers. However, there are opportunities for new models of recruitment to arise.
9. Selling apprenticeships is made harder by the economic situation. Companies that are under pressure are unlikely and unwilling to focus on their long-term skills strategy, making it very difficult for recruiters to raise them as a viable option.
SMEs and Apprenticeships
10. Some sectors are adopting apprenticeships more readily than others. Large manufacturers in particular are ahead of the game. IT and Technology are areas where larger companies have taken to using apprenticeships, often with enthusiasm, but this is not yet spreading widely enough through the supply chain. Our members have remarked on the real need for the IT sector to bring in more apprentices, so this is an issue that must be promoted proactively.
11. Across the economy however, it is clear that SMEs are finding it most difficult to take on apprentices. We believe that recruiters, with their central offering of sourcing candidates that companies could not otherwise find, can be very useful in overcoming these barriers.
12. Other barriers also exist, however. Health and safety ‘box-ticking’, for example, can be cumbersome for young workers. As the government has recognised, health and safety requirements should be set at sensible levels for all workers. This approach must also include apprentices.
13. This touches on the wider point that apprenticeships should be made as accessible as possible for SMEs. They are the companies with the most to gain from new workforce options, but also those facing the most risk from on-boarding people without experience of the world of work, as well as drawing on limited staff resource for training.
14. SMEs are also the most likely companies to recruit through informal processes, meaning they will be less exposed to messaging about apprenticeships and information on how to take them up. We believe this is an area that the National Apprenticeship Service has to consider very closely.
Issues of Concern
15. Completion rate—robust information is needed on the proportion of apprenticeships which are started but not finished. Simply hitting targets for number of apprentices is of no value if the long-term skills agenda is not supported.
16. Short courses—our members have expressed concerns that “apprenticeships” are being offered which are 12-week courses, damaging the reputation of the scheme as a whole. The perception of apprenticeships as a modern option, not just for manual work, is increasing, but ensuring quality and value is the key to improving reputation and take-up.
17. Abuse of incentives—also important to protecting and improving the reputation of apprenticeships is the need to carefully manage incentives to prevent abuse.
18. Our members have also expressed concerns that big companies will “hoover up” all the best apprenticeships, as they have been accused of taking the best graduates in the past. As stressed above, it has to be ensured that apprenticeships offer real value to SMEs, and this includes having access to the best candidates.
3 February 2012