The 28% fall in
construction apprenticeship starts between August 2017 and March 2018 compared
with the same period the previous academic year suggests the Government needs
to look again at the way the Apprenticeship Levy is working, according to the
Federation of Master Builders (FMB).
Commenting on statistics
published by the Department for Education (DfE), Brian
Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said that the Apprenticeship Levy was
introduced in April 2017 to boost apprenticeship training across all business
sectors but so far it seems to be having the opposite effect.
Some reforms are
obvious and need to be looked at more urgently now, he claimed.
"The Government
should allow large companies to pass more of their Levy vouchers down through
their supply chains if the company itself is not in a position to train
apprentices," he said.
"Currently large
firms are only permitted to pass 10% of their Levy funds down to their
sub-contractors and others in their supply chain. There needs to be much
greater flexibility than this. In the construction sector, larger firms
often do not directly employ on-site tradespeople or directly train
apprentices and so there is a real danger this industry and others will
continue to fail to take advantage of the Apprenticeship Levy if we can’t
change this.
“These figures have
been published shortly after the FMB’s latest research which shows that small
construction firms are experiencing record highs in terms of skills shortages.
In the long term, the only way we will be able to address the chronic skills crisis
is by recruiting and training more new entrants.
"We know that 58%
of builders are struggling to hire bricklayers and 55% are having difficulties
finding carpenters and joiners. We need to iron out the flaws in the
Apprenticeship Levy and reverse this decline in apprenticeships to give us the
best chance of tackling these skills shortages.”
