• Home
  • News
  • Retail
  • Government’s approach to apprenticeships ‘not working’, warns BRC

Government’s approach to apprenticeships ‘not working’, warns BRC

By Huw Hughes

loading...

Scroll down to read more

Retail

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned that the government’s approach to apprenticeships is “not working”.

The BRC said that despite retailers contributing 160 million pounds annually to the Apprenticeship Levy, the current system is “overly rigid” and is preventing many retailers from making full use of their Apprenticeship Levy pot.

“The apprenticeship standards, under which all apprenticeships must exist, are not being developed and approved quickly enough, holding back take up by the industry,” the BRC said.

The number of apprenticeship starters decreased by 5 percent to 125,800 in Q1 2018-2019, while in retail, the number of starters fell by 15 percent overall. A 2018 report by The Open University suggested the current skills gap in the UK was costing businesses 6.3 billion pounds.

Helen Dickinson OBE, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said in a statement: “The Government’s current approach to apprenticeships is not working. Retailers continue to pay into an Apprenticeship Levy pot, yet the number of starts has been falling dramatically. The government should make good on their pledge to reform the Levy, allowing retailers to make better use of the system and increasing the investment they make in the UK’s three million retail workers.”

Rob Halfon, MP and chair of the Education Select Committee, said: “I want to thank the BRC for all their work on apprenticeships and making National Apprenticeships Week 2020 so special in Parliament. We have to ensure that retail apprenticeships are a real ladder of opportunity for people wanting to get skills and jobs for the future. We need to look at possible reform of the levy and the tax system to make sure that we can incentivise and help retailers navigate through the bureaucracy and are encouraged to see apprentices as a vital part of their workforce.”

Photo credit: Pixabay, chafleks

BRC