Sign the pledge

Always two there are, a master and an apprentice.

It’s National Apprenticeships Week, so it’s fitting that I begin this with a congratulatory slap on the back for the Builders Merchants Federation, which has hit its target of 15,000 by 2030 five years early. With target management like that, there’s some roadworks down my way that I’d like you to take a look at.

The BMF  pledge was created in 2023 to highlight the organisation’s commitment to apprenticeships and to promote them  as an excellent way to train new recruits to the industry, and as a feasible, alternative pathway to support the development of more experienced staff. Lots of other companies took up the challenge, and, of course, NMBS celebrated its 60^th anniversary two years ago with a commitment to recruit 60 apprentices across its membership.

The commitment of the Highbourne group coming through this week with a pledge of 1200 apprentices, – Selco too, announced this morning that it has pledged to recruit 600 apprentices in the next five years – which means that the BMF’s target has been met. Of course, that’s not 15,000 apprentices taken on, rather its that so many companies across the sector have taken up the challenge and pledged to create the apprenticeships. Those companies signing the pledge are from across the BMF’s membership.

Apprenticeships are a great way of getting training and working at the same time. University or further academic studies really aren’t for every youngster, quite apart from the amount of debt that a 22-year-old would find themselves saddled with. It was different in my day. I left the University of Essex 30+ years ago with a degree in Literature and Sociology, a battered liver, an ability to speed-read and a £500 overdraft.

Take-up of apprenticeships isn’t as high as it needs to be though – not necessarily in this sector, but across all industries. The Government  announced some changes to the scheme and the Apprenticeship Levy last year,  easing restrictions, so that 10,000 more apprentices can be recruited. The changes include no longer making a Maths and English qualification mandatory for over 19s, and reducing the minimum duration from 12 months to eight months.

Making the scheme less cumbersome, more attractive and with fewer barriers, creating greater flexibility for businesses is a welcome step. However, how much of an impact will this have in the short-term? The Government’s headline figure of 10,000 more apprentices sounds impressive but won’t even touch the sides of the significant loss of skilled labour seen over the past five years.

Then there’s what happens at the end of the programme. It  doesn’t matter if the scheme lasts for 8 months or 12 months if there isn’t a job at the end of it. Apprenticeships have to be seen as an integral part of a company’s recruitment and development process, whereby the skills and training they gain are then used to further develop them in the workplace, either with the company they did the apprenticeship with or another one.  I’m old enough to remember the old YTS programme which really was just a way of employers getting cheap young labour for a year before chucking them out and starting again. The Government’s meddling with National Insurance rates and minimum wage levels in the Budget last year has meant that the cost of employing people at all levels has rocketed.

That said, this industry does really seem to have taken the Apprenticeship Pledge to heart. Let’s hope that the economy picks up so that those numbers can materialise and turn into real, tangible careers.