It’s National Apprenticeship Week, and MPs are falling over themselves to tell us how valuable apprenticeships are. David Cameron wants them to be the ‘new norm’ for those not going to university. Vince Cable celebrates their rapid increase in number. Many are suggesting that we seamlessly morph into a German or Swiss vocational model, often overlooking that these were built over generations and in very different economic circumstances.

We have seen a huge increase in apprenticeships over the past few years – in 2008 there were around 250,000 apprenticeship starts per year. Recent estimates suggest this number has now more than doubled. However, as Chuka Umunna points out, not much of this growth is down to young people taking up apprenticeships. The majority of the recent increase is accounted for by those aged over 25, with their numbers rising by a staggering 200 per cent since 2008.

This poses a direct challenge to the government narrative on youth unemployment. How can it claim the apprenticeship programme is helping tackle youth unemployment, when in fact most new apprenticeships are not being taken up by young people?

It also throws up the question of what exactly we mean by an apprenticeship. In many ways, the boldest part of the Richard Review of apprenticeships was the simple suggestion that not everything has to be called an apprenticeship. Early interventions for people far from the labour market would be better characterised as pre-apprenticeships or traineeships; while training for people already in existing jobs should be just that – on the job training. By calling this plethora of activity apprenticeships, we dilute the very meaning of the word and prevent this pathway from being perceived as equivalent to the university route.

If we really want to achieve parity between apprenticeships and university, we need to focus relentlessly on quality as well as quantity. It’s pointless creating a ‘new norm’ of people going into poor quality opportunities – people will quickly realise it’s a scam. Changing perceptions is an uphill struggle, given that currently only one in ten parents cite apprenticeships as the preferred option for their children. To tackle this, apprenticeships should be a genuine high quality option for school leavers weighing up their career options. And they need to be promoted by schools as such.

Promoting higher level apprenticeships is a step in the right direction. Initiatives such as Creative Skillset’s new higher level apprenticeships should be welcomed. Also the current development of a civil service fast track apprenticeship scheme is promising. This has the potential to create a model for high quality public sector apprenticeships. More importantly, it sends a signal that the state practices what it preaches.

Andrew Adonis rightly suggested that a revolution is needed in the supply of good quality youth apprenticeships. A new scheme funded by the Arts Council has already taken up this challenge. The creative employment programme, run by Creative & Cultural Skills, will support the creation of 2,900 apprenticeships alongside other opportunities. This is a notable shift in focus from the Arts Council, which appears to have rediscovered its Keynesian roots.

Another way to raise the profile of apprenticeships would be for MPs to actually hire apprentices themselves. This can easily be done through The Parliamentary Academy – a cross-party project allowing MPs to take on apprentices. Ed Miliband, Mike Crockart and the skills minister Matthew Hancock are just some of the MPs already participating in the scheme. National Apprenticeship Week provides the perfect opportunity for other MPs to match their rhetoric with action, by hiring an apprentice in their own office.

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Marcus Mason has worked for The Creative Society, an arts employment charity since helping to establish it in 2009. He is currently on a secondment to Creative & Cultural Skills supporting the set up of a fund to help unemployed young people get into entry level jobs in the creative sector and recently worked as an advisor to the Richard Review of Apprenticeships. He is also a trustee of SE1 United, a youth charity based in Lambeth.

Photo: Toyota UK