Skills Minister commits to apprenticeship starts rising to a higher-level by the end of this Parliament

Meanwhile, Labour says the whole system is “strategically failing”.

Alex Burghart MP tells Tom Bewick, presenter of the award-winning Skills World Live Radio Show, that:

“The thing that keeps me awake at night is to realise that potential.”

In an exclusive interview for FE News this week, the Skills World Live Radio Show, goes head to head with the recently appointed skills minister at the Department for Education.

On falling apprenticeship starts, Minister Burghart, said:

“Figures will keep rising for the rest of this Parliament. We got a good settlement out of the spending review in the autumn. The chancellor gave us the best deal for skills that we’ve had in ten years.

“Obviously we don’t have a limitless budget. But we are going to see more and more apprentices.”

At the end of the programme, Tom Bewick also conducted an exclusive interview with the shadow skills and FE minister, Toby Perkins MP, who sets out Labour’s alternative vision. He told the programme:

“The dearth of opportunities [apprenticeships] for 16-24-year olds is acute and is a huge problem.

“I think there needs to be a far greater focus on apprenticeships as a route into new careers, particularly in the context of Brexit.

“We’ve got an incredibly complicated and convoluted picture for employers at the moment. They are being asked to provide T Level placements; offer work experience at school; offer traineeships and apprenticeships… I think the government are strategically failing and very badly.”

In the first extensive interview to be broadcast with Minister Burghart since he took up the role 8 months ago, Tom Bewick puts the government’s skills policies under the spotlight by conducting a wide-ranging examination of:

• Performance of the skills system under successive governments
• Fall in starts in apprenticeships and high withdrawal rates
• Opportunities for young people, particularly apprentices
• The creeping nationalisation of the skills agenda, via interventions like T Levels
• Qualifications reform and its controversies

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Alex Burghart MP from Skills World Live on Vimeo.

Don’t forget to tune in to the live broadcast this Friday 27 May at 4.00pm, exclusively on FE News.

Available after in audio playback where you usually get your podcasts.

Access the show’s Spotify Playlist here.

The Skills World Live Radio Show is sponsored by OneFile and Pearson. Do get in touch with us if you’d like to appear on the programme or have ideas for debates and issues we should be covering.