Skills Minister outlines traineeship plans

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has announced plans to launch a new traineeship to provide young people with a stepping stone towards securing an Apprenticeship.

The traineeship could be in place as early as September to help young people between 16-24 who are not in education or struggling to find work.

EAL, the awarding organisation for the engineering, manufacturing, building services and related sectors, welcomed the move.

Ann Watson, EAL’s managing director, said: “Young people lack opportunities to develop their inter-personal skills, gain interview practice or real-life work experience.

“While Apprenticeships go a long way to ensuring young people develop these skills, there have been calls for pre-Apprenticeship programmes to ensure learners have a basic level of work-readiness before entering the workplace.

“As government and industry strives to ensure all Apprenticeships are seen as equivalent to higher education and meet the highest levels of rigour and assessment, it is increasingly important that prospective apprentices meet a minimum standard.

“Industry Apprenticeships are already providing young people with a stepping stone into highly skilled careers. If prospective apprentices initially go through a pre-Apprenticeship style Traineeship, this will only help to push standards further giving the economy a much needed boost.”

The direction of the traineeship will focus on helping young people develop a solid foundation before commencing an Apprenticeship programme. It will aim to bolster proficiency in areas such as English and Maths, as well as helping young people in areas of real-life skills.

This will ensure young people are better equipped with real-life skills to help shape an improved workforce and give the economy a much needed boost.

The Skills Minister has called on employers and training providers to help structure the initiative by providing their opinions.

Syema Majeed

(Pictured: Skills Minister Matthew Hancock)