Page 10 - Gi flipbook April 2019

management & education news

APPRENTICESHIP FUNDS BEING SPENT

ON LEGACY TRAINING OR LEFT IDLE

scheme is being used for purposes
other than those set out by George
Osborne, then Chancellor of Exchequer,
when he launched it in his 2015
budget speech as a “bold step” to “raise
Britain’s game” for workplace training.
They will also prompt questions over
whether the levy is being used to plug
a hole in government funding for pre-
existing apprenticeship schemes.
“The government must be clear with
employers about what their levy is
actually covering,” said Kirstie Donnelly,
Managing Director at City & Guilds, who
suggested that the money should be
ring-fenced so that it can only be spent
A LACK OF FLEXIBILITY HAS BEEN on new apprenticeships or support for
BLAMED FOR THE POOR RESULTS companies wanting to offer them.
Ms Donnelly added that a lack of
ALMOST ALL THE money paid by UK training standards body City & Guilds. flexibility in how levy money can be spent
companies into the government’s new Instead, the Department of Education, made it impossible for many employers
apprenticeship levy scheme was either which distributes the funds, spent £1.1 to find approved training schemes they
spent on legacy workplace training or left billion to pay for apprenticeships that were willing or able to fund.
unused, according to The Financial Times. were set up before the new scheme The apprenticeship levy was
Just £268 million of the £2.3 billion was introduced, even though these are introduced in April 2017 as part of a
total contributed in the 2017-18 inaccessible to those paying the levy. government overhaul of workplace
financial year was used to pay for new The figures, covering the first full training that aimed to improve the
approved apprenticeship programmes, year of the levy’s operation, will fuel UK’s skills gap and create three million
according to information obtained by the concerns that the apprenticeship apprenticeships by 2020.

MPS CALL ON GOVERNMENT TO BAN UNPAID WORK TRIALS

debate, said there was a “deficiency” participating in a trial shift to at least
in the National Minimum Wage Act the NMW for any work carried out and
1998 allowing for unpaid labour when would oblige them to inform candidates
someone is participating in a scheme how long the trial period would last,
“seeking or obtaining of work” or provide feedback following the shift
“designed to provide training, work and inform them of what arrangements
experience or temporary work”. would be made to notify them of the
MPS HAVE CALLED “Hundreds of people” had been in outcome of their application, reports
FOR A CRACKDOWN ON touch with MPs about their experiences People Management.
UNPAID INTERNSHIPS
of unpaid trial shifts, added McDonald, Labour MP and Shadow Minister
A NUMBER OF MPs have called for ranging from a couple of hours in a for Business Justin Madders also
a crackdown on the use of unpaid coffee shop to a “40-hour working week contributed to the debate, calling
trial shifts for candidates as part of where people tried out for a job that unpaid trial shifts a “scam” used to
the recruitment process – a move the they would not be paid for and had no give young people a “false hope of
government has indicated it will resist. guarantee of securing permanently”. employment”.
In a parliamentary debate, MPs McDonald, whose Unpaid Trial Work Kelly Tolhurst, Minister for Small
from both sides of the house said Periods (Prohibition) Bill has been left Business, said the government had
current national minimum wage stalled in parliament since March last clarified its view that work trials
(NMW) regulations were not sufficient year, pleaded with the government which were “reasonable, not excessive
and called for laws on unpaid labour to “do something meaningful and and clearly part of a legitimate
to be tightened. introduce legislation”. recruitment exercise do not require
Stewart McDonald, the Scottish McDonald’s bill would require payment at the relevant minimum
National Party MP who called the employers to remunerate individuals wage rate”.

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News.indd 5 14/03/2019 14:19