Covid-19 pandemic creating apprenticeships crisis
It is National Apprenticeship Week in the UK, a time to celebrate all that is good about bringing young people into worthwhile careers.
But according to the In-Comm Training Barometer, the pandemic has forced over half the companies in the manufacturing sector to suspend apprenticeships and training, leading to the possibility of a lost generation of apprentices.
Nick Peters spoke to Verity Davidge, Policy Director at Make UK, and she says that while Covid-19 is largely responsible for what’s happening now, apprenticeships were already under threat from the government’s own Apprenticeship Levy, regarded by many from its inception in 2017 as badly thought out – and badly managed.