Apprentice numbers double in Croydon South in a single year

“@Krystal333:

Been thinking about this. The question for me is 'what can a young apprentice reasonably accept'?

We'll also assume The Govt can't do big cash incentives. Everything will have to be small.

- A wage?

No. When you're in college you don't get wages. So why would you expect them in a workplace training scheme? The work you produce will be substandard for a long time, as you are still very-much the trainee. And it will cost to divert staff to monitor and train you. The firm needs to be able to break even on you, and that means they need to be able to keep what little good work you do to pay for the training staff.

If you start with a firm at 18 you might not be up-to-speed until you're 21. Just like doing a degree. We're talking a big commitment from a firm. It has to be viable. It can't be a loss-maker or you'll pull the firm under.


- Expenses.

Yes. EMA did this for college kids, and I don't see why you shouldn't get expenses to help with the kit & travel to get to a training scheme. The Private Firm can either voluntarily pay up, or be taxed to cover the costs. But there is no point in an apprenticeship being offered if there is no way for the chidler to get there to get said training.

Anything offered has to be accessible to The Poor.


- Accreditation.

Hell yes! I know full well that some firms will just exploit kids and use them as cheap unskilled labour. They won't teach them a thing. They'll just have them doing donkey-work. This isn't educating them, it's exploiting them.

I'd love to see Apprenticeships accredited, so that when you say 'I did this for 3 years with this lot' the possible new employer can check who the firm was, and see if their apprenticeship is worth something in the real world.


With our kids already giving up due to these deplorable Tuition Fees the last thing we need is for a wave of dodgy firms to be able to move in and exploit them as well. That's a guaranteed lost generation, and a bill this country simply cannot afford. All apprenticeships offered must be good stuff. They have to be useful for the chidler.

But they mustn't cripple the firm either, or this whole thing just won't float.”

“This is great news, but is still not enough.

With 1 million kids in this country NEETS ( not in education, employment, or training ) 340 Apprenticeships is, well, obviously not enough. We need more. Much more.


The problem is that the Govt is skint. Their own economic policies have stuffed their ability to invest; as they have to borrow a fortune just to cover the unemployment benefits they brought on themselves by sabotaging education & Labour infrastructure projects. So...

We need more Apprenticeships. And The Govt can't afford more of these 'cash incentives'. So how do we do it?

The Private Sector has 2 choices. Take on more Apprentices, or face higher Taxes to pay for the Apprentice & Education places needed to rescue our kids.

As a Socialist if the Private Sector won't cough up we must force them to. We can't leave our kids on the scrap heap just because a bunch of loaded Surrey-belt directors are too greedy.”

“Overall it IS good for the young apprentices - also amazing how a cash incentive from Government, the ability to pay **** wages for long hours and no proper employment benefits has also motivated this sudden increase in positions, or am I just too cynical?”