Agenda item

Please introduce yourself and outline the roles and responsibilities that your post involves.

I am the Chief Executive of the Kent Channel Chamber of Commerce, which has existed since 1899. The Chamber covers East Kent (Thanet, Dover and Shepway) which includes many areas of deprivation.  We work with businesses of all types, across all sectors.  97% of East Kent’s businesses are micro-businesses.

I have worked with the Chamber since 1999. Like Jon Thorn and Vic Grimes from the National Apprenticeships Service (NAS), I also used to work at SOLOTEC (South London Training & Enterprise Centre). Our Chamber is accredited to a national network of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), and they champion business issues from the ground up. 

Kent Channel Chamber works closely with other Chambers across the South East and a few years ago these Chambers met up with the NAS to work with and promote Apprenticeships to employers in the South East. The key questions we asked were how we could help to promote Apprenticeships, and what funds were available to support and market the programme.  Unfortunately NAS had no government funds available for marketing and had invested in their own personnel who were responsible largely for visiting only the larger employers across the South East.

In my 13 years’ experience in the Channel Chamber, I am privileged to have close links to schools and FE colleges in the area, as well as JobCentre Plus, training providers, the voluntary and community sectors and the careers service.  I also have key links with the County Council and District Councils, whose Economic Development departments also have an interest in promoting the Apprenticeships programme.  The Chamber of Commerce is at the centre of this apprenticeship network and has long-term, sustainable relationships with all the other organisations listed above. 

As I have said, the majority of businesses in Kent employ fewer than 5 people each, and they are the least involved with the Apprenticeships programme. 

Each Apprentice costs the Government several thousands of pounds a year, but how much of the ‘delivery’ costs go to the employer who is taking on the Apprentice? Perhaps the model is wrong.  We must seek to change and improve the model so the employer becomes the driving force.  Until this happens, Apprenticeships will not be an integral part of the businesses’ training and development plans but need to be.  The Government and the KCC need to rethink how to achieve a more effective Apprenticeships programme, one that is tailored to the majority of local businesses – micro- businesses.

Up to five or six years ago, businesses in Kent were generally doing well, but now the recession has taken hold, many employers in East Kent are facing severe challenges. Many have had to amend their business Plans and I think we too need to change the ‘apprenticeship’ model to get employers on board.

I recall the Apprenticeships programme of the 60’s/70’s.  Employers were very proud of this programme, to run it and own the outputs.  They would benefit by gaining long-term employees from people who had originally joined as part of the Apprenticeships programme. By contrast, ownership of the new Apprenticeships programme appears to be in the public sector, and the employer is merely asked to help deliver it for a defined period.

When a Chamber of Commerce is in an area in which there are logistical difficulties in setting up business, it needs to be in a position to make the best use of the openings for Apprentices which are available.  When a company has a vacancy which it is seeking to fill, it becomes useful to an Apprenticeships scheme, and to capitalise on this moment, good communication is vital.  I see that it would be difficult sometimes to have a good dialogue and make the most of an opportunity for a young person, do you?

Yes, I can see that it could be.  For example, in Shepway, there are 7 Secondary Schools, including 2 Academies, and we had hoped they would collaborate on work experience programmes and their links to employers to organise work experience for their students, but sadly this doesn’t seem to be happening.  It makes good economic and marketing sense to have local, co-ordinated district-wide work experience programmes. It avoids duplication of effort, more businesses can be targeted and they will come to value the work experience programme as a pre-cursor to recruit new staff.

The Richard report recommends that ‘employers should be given purchasing power’.  How would this support employers?

None of the NAS funds for delivering an Apprentice go to the employer. Surely if you wish the employer to drive the programme forward, he should be given the responsibility for this AND a share of the funds so that the ‘training’ can become an integral part of the employers activity. An employer needs to gain some financial benefit from taking on an Apprentice, and needs to own their own training programme.  Unfortunately, due to the plethora of free government training schemes over the past 20 years, many small employers no longer feel that they are responsible for training their workforce, but they need to accept this responsibility and own their training function.  Conversely, many of the area’s larger employers do still run their own internal training function, but fail to value the Govermen’s Apprenticeships programme.  Whilst I applaud the current cash incentives for taking on an Apprentice, it is not persuading employers to change their philosophy and may be encouraging many employers to continue paying the lowest possible wage.

Has the Government’s aim been lost in translation to employers?  How do you see the system running in 5 years’ time?  We say ‘the employer is king’ and should do their own training, but some SMEs are too small to manage training.  Is there a role for training organisations to deliver their training for them? The Richard report suggests that money should go direct to employers and/or be in the form of a tax rebate.  This hopes to spread the ethos that businesses need a skilled workforce.

In the current economic climate, employers are generally recruiting less.  However, this makes it more important that we link up to those who are recruiting, to optimise the scope for promoting Apprenticeships.  The nature of many SME jobs is different from what it was 20 years ago.  Many employers do not understand what Apprenticeships could mean to them.  The only message employers are getting about Apprenticeships is what they are being told by FE colleges and training providers, who are each aiming to sell their services.

There are gaps in knowledge and gaps in communication, especially with the large number of SMEs in Kent.     

The Expansion East Kent (EEK) initiative has been very valuable and there is some £25m of this funding left to support SMEs in East Kent. Employers who are seeking to benefit from EEK funds have to demonstrate that they will take on additional staff.  The potential of the EEK programme to benefit the Apprenticeships agenda has not yet been fully realised. There are 520 employers who have applied to the EEK scheme, and this gives an ideal opportunity to talk to them, sell them the Apprenticeships programme and tell them the benefits that Apprentices could bring to them.

The fact that there is £25m left of EEK funding concerns me.

My concern is more about the difficulties of supporting more employers successfully through the programme.  Whether or not they benefit by getting growth funding, they are declaring an intention to expand their business and will still have potential to take on Apprentices.  I have noticed the attitude of employers and job centres change in the last three years as the recession has taken hold.  The Apprenticeships programme fits into the benefits that the EEK loan can offer to employers.

Shepway is a good example of a district that has managed to promote the Apprenticeship programme to local employs after it became apparent that very few local businesses were engaged. Shepway District Council has funded an incentive programme to improve this by engaging and collaborating with local employers to bring them on board.  Being able to offer them £1,500 per Apprentice and a support officer helped this.

Can you identify two or three specific things that could be done to help create the right environment to increase Apprenticeships?

Engaging schools is a prime example.  Schools do not appear to promote or deliver Apprenticeships as there has been no financial support for them to do this. Schools are an obvious place in which to engage young people about linking to the world of work and the local business community.  The careers advice service also needs to engage more with Apprenticeships.  Many young people still leave school having no idea about the world of work and what they could do or want to do.  The FE colleges appear to have adopted that role of preparing young people for employment and help them develop a work ethic and employment skills.

How should employers engage with schools to promote Apprenticeships?

I would recommend that this is linked directly to work experience schemes.  SMEs and larger companies are happy to give work experience to schools.  This can be either for one day a week or for a longer period, which gives a student a more realistic picture of the work and is mutually beneficial for employer and student as they can build more of a relationship, include further training and develop a possible future career path.  It gives a young person the chance to get started and see what work they like.  Any school which currently offers no work experience should work on a flexible work experience programme which could lead to Apprenticeships.

What is most needed is a local model in which key organisations across a district can work on an agenda to get the local business community to understand the value of Apprenticeships and workplace skills. Once you make links you get information and can start to move forward (eg by finding out the size of the challenge in your area – ie how few Apprentices are there).

Has a lack of marketing contributed to the challenge?

Yes, partly.  We now need to increase marketing nationally and locally

Is the first need to stimulate any activity? Does the KCC respond to need, getting involved when a company is ready to recruit? Can the KCC do this?

SMEs’ recruitment could be partly low level, requiring minimal training, in jobs in which there are low expectations of staff, while in other jobs more is expected.  We need to consider what the Apprenticeships programme offers to SMEs, and whether it is in danger of becoming just a ground-level training programme for employers.

There is an example I can give: a friend running an engineering company added value to his business by taking on Apprentices, thus proving the value of employing young people. We need to cultivate this ethos and spread it.

Yes, we seek to increase numbers of Apprentices but it’s not just about increasing numbers but adding value.  We need to show businesses that taking on Apprentices can add value and drive forward a business.

I think the age of their workforce is a major factor in influencing employers to take on Apprentices.

Yes, I know several businesses in which most or all of the workforce are older people, with several nearing retirement.  They are realising that they need some young people!

Are some people still hung up on the view that Apprenticeships are all about engineering and plumbing?

The Government has sought to change this attitude in the last few years, but many employers still perpetuate this idea – that’s the nature of the business community. We need to think about how we can help them to see the value of Apprenticeships.

Can you comment on employers’ attitudes to training?  Successful business people know that good training is good business practice.  How do we spread this message?

You can’t separate Apprenticeships and training; they have to go together. Local partners can start off this agenda, and we can start to use these businesses as models of good practice to encourage others.  Where we can make connections, we can pick up the issue and start to address how we can improve it.

We have to address and seek to change entrenched views.

Yes, we need to galvanise a dispirited business community and show them what they could do, just by collaborating locally and making the best use of resources.  We could use some models which are working well elsewhere across the UK. For example, there are some good Apprenticeships models working in North East England which we could learn from and copy.

Summing up, it seems that the Select Committee needs to look at Apprenticeships in context, and where they fit with the growth agenda, and for any business to offer training and take on Apprentices, they have to be making some money, and many aren’t in the current economic climate.