Today’s post comes courtesy of Lorna Tyrtania, ThirdForce Senior Product Manager.
News from the Budget
Great to hear from George Osborne today that he has the aspiration to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe. The chancellor stated that youth unemployment rose by 100,000 between 2004 and 2008, and has risen by a further 250,000 since the start of the recession. While participation in learning by 16 to 18 year olds has continued to rise, currently 9.4 per cent of all 16 to 24 year olds are unemployed and not in education.
Highlights:
Work experience
- The Government is already investing £7.6 billion in 2011-12 in education and training for 16 to 19 year olds in addition to the £1.4 billion apprenticeship programme. The Government will fund an additional 80,000 work experience places for young people, ensuring up to 100,000 places will be available over the next two years.
Extra Apprenticeship Places
- The Government also announces £180 million for up to 50,000 additional apprenticeship places over the next four years. 40,000 places will provide additional capacity to support young unemployed people, in particular through progression from the work experience programme.
Business Consortia for SME Apprenticeships
- To address the specific barriers faced by SMEs in accessing apprenticeships, the Government will support business consortia to set up and maintain advanced and higher apprenticeships schemes, supported by grants, creating a further 10,000 apprenticeships.
An ICM Omnibus poll has also just been published that found 46% of people agree that the rising costs of university tuition fees would make them more likely to consider doing an apprenticeship.
We’re delighted to hear that the Government is committed to further expansion of apprenticeships and we look forward to helping employers deliver them.
You have to hand it to the UK government (and the UK public service)… despite the need to cutback on spending across the board they continue to give a priority to education. Yes, they have had to drop some programs and are actively trying to reduce the admin costs but the commitment to education remains, by the standard of other European governments, exemplary. The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article last Friday where they highlighted Portugal’s economic challenges. In the article they pointed out that Portugal will have great difficulty overcoming these issues when “just 28% of the Portuguese population between 25 and 64 has completed high school. The figure is 85% in Germany, 91% in the Czech Republic and 89% in the U.S.” The key to economic sustainability is education, the UK knows this and continues to make it a strategic investment.