Workplace training for secondary school pupils

From September fourteen to sixteen year olds will be able to
spend up to two days a week out of the classroom, learning a trade
in a workplace.

The new scheme was announced by education secretary Charles
Clarke yesterday.

Initial opportunities on the new Young Apprenticeships scheme
will be in engineering, automotive industries, business
administration, logistics and the arts and creative industries.
Recruits will have to meet certain achievement criteria, and the
government expects that about half of them will continue training
after age 16 and progress to level 2 Apprenticeships which will
replace the existing foundation level apprenticeship.

The DfES admits that demand for apprenticeships from young
people is already outstripping the supply of places on offer from
employers.  The Learning and Skills Council is to run an
advertising and marketing campaign to persuade employers to offer
more places.   

The way apprenticeships are organised has been changed to meet
the demands of employers who will now have more input into the way
they are designed. It will in future be possible for an apprentice
to switch employer and take their part-completed apprenticeship
with them.

Clarke said “The new Young Apprenticeships represent one
of the most exciting developments for young people since the
introduction of GCSEs in 1986 and fits in with Mike
Tomlinson’s work on 14 to 19 curriculum reform.”

The Entry to Employment scheme launched last August for young
people not ready or able to join an apprenticeship is to be
rebranded as a Pre-Apprenticeship.

According to the government there are now 255,500
apprenticeships in England compared to 76,000 in 1997.