Apprenticeships can offer job security and close the skills gap – don’t look down on them
4 min read
“My brother did one and I thought, ‘Yeah, I’d give it a go’,” I recounted.
“Yeah, I was the same, to be honest with you,” a young person from my Derby South constituency nodded back to me at an apprenticeship reception on the Terrace.
Other young people nodded around him. In that moment, among apprentices younger than my children, I realised that this was the largest group of people I had spoken to who shared my early career pathway since I had arrived at Parliament in July.
There is a healthy contingent of MPs with a background in Stem, and our Parliament undoubtedly benefits from those voices. But there are not many former apprentices on the green benches. I’m proud to be one of them.
I began my engineering apprenticeship with Celanese at 16. And yes, as I told the apprentice from my constituency, I had followed the path of my brother a year after he had begun his. Notwithstanding the 80s haircut, even my big brother couldn’t claim that I was cramping his style because he’d followed our older brother who had opted for an apprenticeship too.
As we enter National Apprenticeship Week, it’s important to recognise the confidence it takes to forge a path without the reassurance of others’ success. With research from the CIPD showing that only six per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds pursue apprenticeships, addressing this challenge is crucial if we are to close the skills gap that threatens our ambitions for growth.
Given that the decision to pursue an apprenticeship has been so foundational to my career (and retention – I went on to stay with Celanese for 23 years and my role as an MP is only the third job I’ve had in my lifetime), I would like to think I’d have pursued one anyway. After all, I did have a keen interest in engineering which I’ve carried with me throughout my life and into politics. But in truth, it mattered to have those role models, as it does for most young people who are trying to navigate those daunting and seemingly decisive first steps of their careers.
It mattered to have the support of my parents too. Despite having no formal qualifications or proficiency in English, they understood the transformative power of education in creating opportunities and driving social mobility, having encountered those very barriers themselves time and again. They encouraged my six siblings and I to pursue our studies with rigour and, critically, understood that an apprenticeship was high-quality education.
My apprenticeship education was highly technical and competitive, and it pushed me to apply myself in order to achieve. Any suggestion that apprenticeships are a second-rate form of education or a reflection of lesser ability has always felt counterintuitive to me. Yet employers tell me this misconception continues to hinder recruitment to apprenticeship pathways.
The Nuclear Skills Academy, in my home city of Derby, enrols 200 apprentices each year and is oversubscribed. Their applicant outreach programme doesn’t just engage prospective students in schools and colleges but directly engages with their parents too.
Current Nuclear Skills Academy apprentices regularly visit schools and colleges, returning to the same sites multiple times a year, to share their own experiences. Through these authentic and continuous conversations, young people can see living proof of someone who has trodden that path, just as I had needed to see. Young people can speak to someone who is earning while learning, making friends and living independently – not having to compromise on the enticing social benefits higher education promises.
Simultaneously, parents can learn directly from the employer about employment outcomes, career progression and, against the backdrop of a precarious graduate labour market, the job security that apprenticeship pathways can offer. This dual approach has been key to unpicking misconceptions that have previously undermined enrolment success, and the programme is going from strength to strength.
Having introduced the Derby Promise – a commitment to expand opportunities, raise aspirations and promote the wellbeing of the next generation – in my former role as leader of Derby city council, I’m genuinely excited about the government’s own youth guarantee to give all 18- to 21-year-olds access to education, training or employment.
It is our duty to empower young people and their families with the confidence to embrace this path. And with National Apprenticeship Week upon us, there’s no better time to start.
Baggy Shanker, Labour (Co-op) MP for Derby South
PoliticsHome Newsletters
Get the inside track on what MPs and Peers are talking about. Sign up to The House's morning email for the latest insight and reaction from Parliamentarians, policy-makers and organisations.
