Are Cameron's Apprenticeships a con?

Yesterday the two heads of the Coalition's Apprenticeship plan resigned.

Also yesterday I was critical of the apprenticeships in the Commons.

Paul Flynn(Newport West) (Lab): Although I greatly I admire the work of my close comrade, the hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), is not there a danger that apprenticeships that are essentially relabelled job creation, job experience schemes or internships, without a job, skill or indentures at the end, are likely to increase the cynicism and disillusionment among young people?

The chief executives leading the Government's multi-billion pound apprenticeship schemes have both announced they are to step down.

Geoff Russell will leave his position heading up the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) in the summer.

The SFA has faced accusations of misuse of public money by training providers and an inquiry is to start next month.

Mr Russell's departure coincides with the resignation of Simon Waugh, head of the National Apprenticeship Service.

Both men in charge of the Government's multi-billion pound apprenticeship schemes announced their departures on the same day.

FIVE LIVE REPORTS

How wisely is taxpayers' money being spent on government-backed apprenticeships? This week the programme investigates one scheme set up by ex-Welsh football international Mark Aizlewood which was meant to train teenagers to become sports coaches. The company - Luis Michael Training - was awarded around £6 million by eight further education colleges to deliver the scheme at football clubs up and down the country. Two thousand young people signed up - but no-one got their qualification. Hundreds of trainees have been left out of pocket and the company is now in liquidation. Was the scheme properly scrutinised by the colleges and the government's Skills Funding Agency? We ask who's to blame for the failure and what happened to all the money.

Comments

[john]

Misuse of apprenices scheme by employers. An employer takes on apprentices each year, and pays nothing more than the government money in wages. These young people are needed to run the bussiness as it is in child care and needs 1 adult to 3 children (they are part of these numbers and not an addition). They are put through a long interview procedure with the promise of a job at the end of the course, asked to work up to 50 hours a week with no pay on training days. They are then told after 8 months to finish the course as soon as possible and there will be no job at the end of the course because the want to take on more apprentices before the dead line for recruting apprentices. The outcome is that the company owner gets the labour to run and make fortunes and not paying any wages. PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS NOT LEGAL. The perfect case of apprentices being used as free child labour (or being payed by the tax payer) and keeping qualified people out of a job. The company are doing this every year and do not have a wage bill making them very rich and abuse of the kids they take on with false promises.

[HuwOS]

Proper apprenticeships lead to qualified, capable workers, who then have self respect and who are able to properly charge for their labours, since when would any right wing leaning government want that kind of thing to take off.

On another note
I see the home affairs select committee is to hold a new drugs inquiry

http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/2011/11/home-affairs-select-committee-announces.html

Let's hope they are serious about this, especially when they examine whether current policy ‘fiscally responsible policy with strategies grounded in science, health, security and human rights'

Although it's a pity that we have to hope they will take this seriously enough to reach the answer that we all already know.