You're hired! Live webchat on apprenticeships with education minister John Hayes, Tues 7 Feb, 11.15am

[KatieMumsnet]

We're delighted to be joined by John Hayes MP, Education Minister with particular responsibility for apprenticeships, careers guidance and vocational education.

John joins us in National Apprenticeship Week, which aims to persuade employers of the advantages of employing and supporting apprentices in their workplace and highlight the range of apprenticeships available in different sectors.

Apprenticeships now go up to degree level, and allow you to earn a wage as you train. John would specifically like to find out from Mumsnetters what your impressions are of apprenticeships are, do you think they're a path to a good career? And If not, why not?

Before becoming and MP John trained as a teacher and was the director of an award winning local computer company

Do post your question live on Tuesday, but if you're not able to join us - please do post away below.

MNHQ

hi

I wanted to ask a question a bit off topic. Recently saw the Iron Lady - even though I'm no fan of Thatcher, it reminded me what an achievement it was for a women to become PM - why do you think they've been no prominent women politicians since? Would you like to see another women as leader? Louise Mensch maybe?

I have a signed portrait of Margaret Thatcher at home, because like you I appreciate the scale of her achievement. Most importantly, she reminded us that politicians could make a real difference: Britain can stand proud and that ideas should drive policies. Paradoxically, she raised the bar so high in terms of her leadership that I think it has been very hard for others to follow. My mum would have made a great politician because she was wonderful.

@Crumblemum

hi

I wanted to ask a question a bit off topic. Recently saw the Iron Lady - even though I'm no fan of Thatcher, it reminded me what an achievement it was for a women to become PM - why do you think they've been no prominent women politicians since? Would you like to see another women as leader? Louise Mensch maybe?

@dietstartstmoz

I have a few questions for John Hayes:

I am concerned that young people will not know where to start if looking for an apprenticeship, and I am also concerned about those that are considering an apprenticeship or FE, and do not have the opportunity to discuss their options with a careers adviser. Questions below:

1. Many of the Connexions services in England have been significantly reduced, and some virtually closed down and only working with young people who have SEN/LDD, leaving many school/6th form/college leavers with no access to talk to an independent careers advisor from Connexions about their options, including apprenticeships. Mr Hayes do you think it is important that young people have the opportunity to talk to an independent specialist careers adviser, about apprenticeships before embarking on these programmes, some of which can be 4 yrs in length? If so, how when Connexions has almost gone in some areas, and if not why not?

1. How do you think that schools and teachers can replace the Connexions service when it comes to giving impartial careers advice on opportunities including apprenticeships? I work in this area, work in a school and my husband is also a teacher. I think apprenticeships are a good opportunity for young people, but I know that teachers and school staff do not know the first thing about what is available in the local area for young people, and what opportunities are available. Many of the teachers I work with cannot do a CV/covering letter for Yr11 students, the examples I see are appalling and would not get young people an interview, let alone a job.

I would be interested to hear your comments please

Thank you for being the first to put this very important question on the impartiality of advice for young people. Firstly,schools will have to use a source of careers guidance that is external to the school that is independent.

Examples could include face-to-face advice from a careers adviser, employer visits, mentors or careers websites. The guidance must be impartial, provided in the best interests of the student and offering information on all 16-18 education or training options, including Apprenticeships.

NAS are also helping schools give better advice with new resources to impartial information on Apprenticeships. Schools and others will also be able to obtain a feed of live vacancies for example based on the location or vacancy sector.

NAS has developed a Resource Pack for teachers and others providing information on Apprenticeships in schools. This pack is available to download from the NAS website ? www.apprenticeships.gov.uk and includes presentations, information sheets and activities.

On the availability of sesrvices, we have moved away from centrally-directed services like Connexions because we want to give schools and local authorities more flexibility to meet the needs of young people in ways that are right for local circumstances. And we want to focus funding on those areas where it is really needed ? like the helpline service.

You're right that firms need to take apprenticeships seriously and the great news is that more and more do; that's how we've succeeded in growing the number of apprenticeships to record levels- 457,200 starts in 2009/10.
The more we celebrate the successes of apprentices and the firms that employ them, the more recognition of the difference they make will grow. That's why this National Apprenticeship week is so important. Like you, I want as many young women with technical tastes and talents to get the chance to do an engineering apprenticeship, so I've asked the National Apprenticeship Service to look specifically at what more we can do to make this happen.

@PricklyPickle

Mr Hayes, I work for a large public sector organisation and co-coordinate the engineering apprenticeship that we offer. This apprenticeship has so far proved to be extremely successful and has produced many promising employees.

In these times of austerity we are offering a fantastic opportunity to young people, but are having trouble promoting our scheme. Firstly the organisation seems to view apprenticeships as a token gesture and a thing of the past, as a result my role in promoting and supporting the apprentices is seen as secondary to my day to day role. This is despite the positive impact it has so far had to the organisation. As a result we are unable to devote resources to promoting the scheme and often do not have a wealth of applicants. I would like to know where we could turn for help and support to advertise and improve our scheme.

For apprenticeships to be a viable option for young people, employees need to be given the skills to develop these schemes, otherwise their true worth and potential will never be reached.

Secondly, as an engineering apprenticeship we have so far had a lack of female interest. We regularly contact colleges to encourage applicants and its extremely rare to find any girls in the room when we attend. I find it shocking that there really seems to have been no progress in encouraging more female participation since '60s. How could we widen our net to capture the interest of females and again are there any government initiatives?

Thank you for your time.

@Mamahotfoot

Good afternoon,

Mr Hayes I am also interested in apprenticeships on a personal level. I am a mother of two, a daughter aged 5 and a son aged 1 1/2. Recently I took redundancy from my permanent post, as it was to be deleted following funding cuts. I have now been officially unemployed for just over 6 months. Having worked as a manager in the public sector I see that vacancies at the level I was working are severely reduced. Despite having been shortlisted down to the final handful 4 times I have not been successful in finding alternative employment. I have therefore considered other options including setting up my own business and the possibility of retraining in a new area of work. I looked into apprenticeships as one alternative. Unfortunately neither the local college or JCP office were able to tell me about apprenticeships for people of my age (40 yrs old). I also see that most apprenticeships are paid at a basic rate. I could not entertain this as an option as after paying for childcare and travel - I would be worse off than if I continued to sign on receiving £67 pw. Has any consideration been given to supporting women who wish to retrain after a career break to return to the job market? What sort of opportunities are there for people in my situation?

Many thanks in advance for your response to my question.

Apprenticeships are at the heart of our drive to get people into jobs, and to equip employers with the skills they need. The Government has committed to help more people to benefit from high quality Apprenticeships. As a demand led programme, this is dependent on employers coming forward to make places available. Funding for Apprenticeships in 2011-12 is over £1.4bn which will be increased to over £1.5bn in 2012-13.

A new minimum wage rate for apprentices was introduced from October 2010 and applies to apprentices aged under 19 and those aged 19 and over in the first year of their Apprenticeship. From 1 October 2011, the minimum rate for apprentices is £2.60 per hour, in line with the Low Pay Commission?s recommendations for this year?s National Minimum Wage (NMW) rate. Apprentices aged 19 and over, who have completed a year on their Apprenticeship, continue to remain eligible for the full NMW rate appropriate to their age.

The fundamental underlying principle of an Apprenticeship is that it is a paid job. As an employee, an apprentice is entitled to the usual in-work benefits, such as Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credits.

If you are interested in finding out more about Apprenticeships or want to see what opportunities are currently available, you should contact the National Apprenticeship Service via www.apprenticeships.org.uk.

But apart from your mum (who I'm sure is very nice) there MUST be some female politicians you rate?

I am passionate about opportunities for people with communications and/or learning difficulties and for people with disabilities more generally. The history of post 16 provision and apprenticeships in particular in this regards is, at best, mixed. So, we need to do more. Again, last year I asked the National Apprenticeship service to develop strategies targeted at making apprenticeship opportunities more readily available to people like the students you work with. A society must do the most it can for people who face the greatest challenges to earn the right to be called civilised.

@working9while5

Mr Hayes, I am a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist working with secondary aged children with Specific Language Impairment.

The students I work with have normal intelligence, are fast visual learners and tend to do well with hands-on tasks and demonstrations. However, they don't fare well with academic learning or learning through talk only. In a world increasingly obsessive about "soft skills" (communication etc), they are severely disabled in a way that 50 years ago, they would not have been.

Unfortunately, there is very little provision for these students at post-16. We currently have a GCSE student who is tremendously hard-working, reliable and personable but struggles with verbal communication. His father had similar difficulties but was able to gain an apprenticeship to a trade and has been gainfully employed for his entire life and supported a family of 5 without needing to rely on benefits. The chances that our student will be able to do similar are, frankly, minimal. We were pretty much told by the Connexions advisor in our area that apprenticeships (his favoured option) were non-existent. He will instead be expected to go to college where it is highly likely that without the level of support he has had in a specialist unit at secondary to access "learning through talk", he will fail.

The research tells us that, overwhelmingly, these students opt out of the system, with a huge proportion not in education, employment or training within months of leaving school. Long term unemployment is also high amongst this group, with anxiety, depression and isolation affecting many. These students are more likely to become involved with crime, with 70% of the youth offending population having some degree of speech or language impairment.

These kids NEED apprenticeships to trades. We need tradespeople. What's the problem? Why is there such a premium placed on very specific types of verbal and written communication that are inaccessible to many? These students would be an asset to the workplace, but they are frozen out by a system that doesn't afford them any opportunities to play to their strength and highlights their weaknesses.

I would strongly encourage meaningful apprenticeship opportunities for this group of students (and many others like them). I am strongly opposed to the loss of GCSE subjects such as fish husbandry. There needs to be a range of opportunity available to students with different learning abilities and preferences.

Hi John

Thanks for coming on here. I saw recently that there is a minimum wage rate for apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship, which is great. But then I was pretty shocked to see that that rate was only £2.60 an hour. Don't you think that's a pretty low rate to expect people to live on?

@Redpeffer

Hi, I remember a few years ago (in better economic times) a young man coming to see me when I was a Careers Adviser. He had gained 9 GCSE's and wanted to pursue a career as a plumber with the full support of his mother. His school however had other ideas and was pressurising him to stay on for A Level's telling him that apprenticeships were worthless compared to academic study. He was also finding it extremely difficult to find someone willing to take him on and the college course available for him were innappropriate due to his academic success. I have two questions: 1) What are you going to do about redressing the balance in favour of apprenticeships as valid career options for academically able students? 2) How are you going to increase the take up rate on behalf of employers willing to offer an apprenticeship, especially in these 'economically challenging' times?

As the economy rebalances, we will need more highly-skilled employees, but businesses are struggling to recruit good graduates from the UK. Higher skills bring higher productivity. But they also allow businesses to become more efficient and more innovative.

We believe that the achievement of high standards in academic study and in practical skills is equally, but differently worthy. We are keen to see Apprenticeships linked with Higher Education. Higher Apprenticeships have potential to deliver high level skills tailored specifically to individual business requirements.

The Higher Apprenticeship Fund is key to our plans for Apprenticeships. Apprentices should be able to progress through into higher level skills and beyond into post-graduate level and professional qualifications.

Times are tough for young people and many businesses.

Apprenticeships are at the heart of our drive to get young people into jobs, and to equip employers with the skills they need.
The Government has committed to help more people to benefit from high quality Apprenticeships. As a demand led programme, this is dependent on employers coming forward to make places available.
The apprenticeship programme is working well for business and learners with growth at every age group and level of learning, and across a vast range of sectors. We have seen a record year for Apprenticeships, with more people than ever both, starting and completing their Apprenticeship.
We are building on this progress with three top priorities:

? Targeting investment and efforts where it will have the greatest impact and deliver the greatest returns, including younger people (16-24) and advanced and higher level qualifications.

? Increasing employer ownership and reducing bureaucracy to make it as easier and quicker for an employer to take on an apprentice;

? Driving up standards and quality in parts of the apprenticeships programme to meet the evolving needs of employers and learners.

Lets cut to the quick, who are my heroines? Apart my mum and my wife (and this is by necessity an abbreviated list) George Elliot- the greatest writer of the 19th century (which is a very brave thing to say on bicentenary of the birth of Dickens); Elizabeth Fry- the great Tory social reformer; Christina Rossetti- for her faith and her poetry; Vivian Leigh- for her style and Amy Winehouse- without a doubt the most talented singer songwriter of recent years (listen to her music all the time) As for politicians, judging ones contemporaries is never a great idea!

quote Crumblemum]But apart from your mum (who I'm sure is very nice) there MUST be some female politicians you rate?[/quote]

@RamblingRosa

Dear Mr Hayes,

I'm concerned about a couple of aspects of apprenticeships.

Firstly, I know of apprenticeships where I live in big supermarkets which are incredibly short (a matter of months) and I'm pretty sure all those going on the apprenticeship are existing staff. So basically it looks to me like the supermarket is getting taxpayers' money to offer training to staff which it should be offering anyway. Surely big profitable businesses have a duty to train their staff (out of their own pockets)? And how is this a real training opportunity? It's not going to help the many local NEETs if a) it's only for existing staff and b) it's a short meaningless qualification that any other employer would laugh at if they saw it on a CV?

Secondly, I'd like to know what you're doing about the fact that the apprenticeship system seems to mirror the gender stereotypes and the pay gap that exist in the wider workforce. I remember hearing you on Woman's Hour a year or two ago talking about girls and apprenticeships. There were some shocking statistics on that programme about how few girls do things like engineering apprenticeships (something like 1% if I remember correctly!) and how most girls are doing things like hairdressing which is really badly paid.

Thirdly, how can a young person who isn't living at home possibly hope to live on £2.60 per hour?

Thanks

Apprenticeship training for 16-18 year olds is fully funded by the Government to provide an incentive to employers to take on a younger person, and reflects the relative inexperience of young people in the workplace. Employers pay salary costs in recognition that their business will reap some productivity benefits.

We believe that the cost of paying for Apprenticeship training for adults should be shared between employers and individuals and the state to reflect the benefit each receives.

For apprentices aged 19 and over, we expect employers to make a contribution to the training costs, as well as paying the salary. For large employers, the government contribution is reduced.

We are aware that there has been negative reporting concerning the quality of certain short duration courses and we firmly believe that all Apprenticeships should entail a rigorous period of learning and the practice of new skills. If standards are sufficiently stretching and expectations of competency high, we believe this will extend over at least 12 months. This will be the minimum expectation for Apprenticeships for under 19 year olds from August 2012, as new contracts to training providers are issued.

NAS will also review the case to extend this to older learners, recognising that they will often start from a higher base of knowledge and skills but also that all Apprenticeships should involve significant new learning.

Women are actively pursing apprenticeships. In 2009/10 the male/female breakdown was roughly the same 49.6% of starts being women and 50.4% being male. The final data for 2010/11 shows that there has been more growth recently in the proportion of women taking up apprenticeships - we are now looking at 53.8% of starts being women and 46.2% being male.

Overall we have seen growth has been seen across sectors, but this has been greatest in areas such as in Business, Administration and Law, Retail and Commercial Enterprise, and Health, Public Services and Care. Hence the increase in women in apprenticeships.

Whilst we consider to see trends of gender in apprenticeships matching traditional roles - the volume of women in engineering does appear to be increasing significantly (from 480 starts in 2009/10 to a provisional 920 starts in 2010/11).

The fundamental underlying principle of an Apprenticeship is that it is a paid job. As an employee, an apprentice is entitled to the usual in-work benefits, such as Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credits.

Why do you think employers in the UK are so reluctant to invest in their future employees? I ask because Foundation Degrees were supposed to be designed around the needs of employers, and largely funded by them, but this doesn't seem to have happened.

When I became minister I raised the apprenticeship wage. And it's important to know that the minimum isn't the average; which is £193 a week. The deal with apprenticeships is what it has always been- you get a job, you get trained and you increase your chance of long term employment. Independent research shows that someone who's done a level 2 apprenticeship over an earning lifetime makes on average around £60,000 more than someone without one. And the figure rises to more than £100,000 for someone who completes a level 3 apprenticeship- that's about the same as an average degree!

@eggsandham

Hi John

Thanks for coming on here. I saw recently that there is a minimum wage rate for apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship, which is great. But then I was pretty shocked to see that that rate was only £2.60 an hour. Don't you think that's a pretty low rate to expect people to live on?

Mr hayes do you really think an employer visit or access to a website is impartial careers guidance? I think not. It is information gathering.

Many employers do of course heavily invest in training, but you're right we can still do more, which is why I've established, and funded to the tune of £250 million, an employer ownership pilot to look at ways of engineering greater employer investment. One of the reasons I've put apprenticeships at the heart of our skills offer is that they implicitly commit employers to training.

@BoffinMum

Why do you think employers in the UK are so reluctant to invest in their future employees? I ask because Foundation Degrees were supposed to be designed around the needs of employers, and largely funded by them, but this doesn't seem to have happened.

@Hellsbelles68

Hello Mr Hayes, I would like to ask you a couple of questions if I may.

1. In 2009 former minister, Mr Alan Milburn, chaired a study on social mobility advising that much better careers advice was needed in order to 'break the glass ceiling'. Could you outline how this government would see this being achieved with fewer guidance professionals available to young people at key decision making stages in their lives.

2. I currently work with Care Leavers and would like to ask if any further support will be given to this client group should they decide to opt for an apprenticeship. As it stands they are financially responsible for themselves from the age of 18 and often live independent of their families. They quite often struggle financially to live on an apprenticeship wage after they have paid their household bills and travel.

You?re right that changes to careers services were originally advocated by Alan Milburn. In his report on fair access to the professions, he called for schools and colleges to be given direct responsibility, working with local authorities, for making their own decisions about careers guidance for young people.
So we have moved away from centrally-directed services like Connexions because we want to give schools and local authorities more flexibility to meet the needs of young people in ways that are right for local circumstances. And we want to focus funding on those areas where it is really needed. In schools for example, we need to trust teachers to make decisions in the interests of their pupils, in order to raise standards. The experience of Academies demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach.
On the second part of your question, The National Apprenticeship Service has been working closely with organisations involved with Care Leavers to ensure that the organisation has all the necessary information to inform Care Leavers about Apprenticeships.

Through the Education Act 2011, we are introducing a new ?offer? to certain groups of young people, which will mean they can be certain that their Apprenticeship training will be funded as a priority, when they have found a place. These groups include
? young people aged 16-18;
? young people aged 19-24 who have a disability and/or learning difficulty; and
? young people aged 19-24 who have been in local authority care.
This will commence in 2013, to fit in with the timescale for Raising the Participation Age in learning.
As an employee, an apprentice is entitled to the usual in-work benefits, such as Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credits.

@purits

I want to echo vj32's point. People only seem to value what is 'measured'. For example, a few years ago no-one cared about how many pupils took a MFL to GCSE but now it is included in the EBacc, people are suddenly taking notice. However, for some reason, the Government only ever measures the academic side of life. I think that there should some form of schools' league table for vocational qualifications too. It would raise the status of vocational qualifications and stop schools from pressurising certain pupils to take unsuitable (for them i.e. academic) qualifications. Don't repeat the error made with Grammars and Sec Mods where all the attention and money went to the Grammar side and they left the Sec Mods on the wayside. I approve of the idea of the EBacc and of removing 'equivalents' from the GCSE tables BUT don't leave it at that. If we are going to believe that BTec and the like are valid routes to take then let's celebrate successes in them in their own right and 'measure' them.

We need to take a good look at the recommendations Alison Wolf made in her review of vocational education. When the new "Wolf" measures are introduced, we will also publish new indicators showing achievements in vocational qualifications that are not already on the "Wolf" list.

@vj32

Hello Mr Hayes

(1) The coalition government has now said over and over that vocational training is not a good as academic qualifications. Schools should not be measured on any other qualifications than GCSEs. The measurement of the English Bacc has led some schools to make all children take a foreign language, whether or not they can read and write well in English. Funding for diplomas and other vocational courses, which had only just been established at great expense, have been stopped. How can the government on the one hand say that apprenticeships are to be encouraged but also say that vocational training and study is not good enough?

(2) How is the government going to ensure that more employers offer apprenticeships, and that they are real apprenticeships with formal training as they should be, not just cheap labour?

(3) Will the government be putting more funding into apprenticeships for the older end of the age bracket, the 18-24 year olds, now that increasing numbers of people are long term unemployed? (Rather than the previous system of most funding being directed at school leavers 16-17)

(4) The end of the Connexions service in most areas means young people have no support looking for work and training if their parents cannot provide it. There is no accurate figure on how many NEETS there are under 18. In my area it was above 10% when the economy was good. I hate to think what it is now. What is the government going to do to fill this gap and support young people to look for work, apprenticeships and training?

We expect that schools will work in partnership with local authorities and external careers guidance providers to ensure that young people are supported. Local authorities will continue to be responsible for additional support for those who would otherwise suffer disadvantage.

The local authority has responsibility for encouraging, enabling and assisting participation in education or training. This generally involves targeting vulnerable young people such as those who are NEET, or at risk of becoming NEET and addressing wider barriers to participation. This package of support may include careers guidance depending on the needs of the individual.

Through the Early Intervention Grant (EIG), local authorities have far greater freedom to develop integrated, efficient support for vulnerable young people than was the case under Connexions. This may include careers advice alongside other support. Many are already doing so.

In a society that is increasingly focused on academic qualifications and degrees, how do we improve the image of apprenticeships and reassure young people that they're not a second rate avenue?

The National Careers Service, as well as a new all age online product will offer telephone advice, be co-located in Jobcentre Plus, colleges and community organisations across the country, have a new social media front end and offer face to face guidance for those that need it most. In addition local authorities retain their statutory responsibility for ensuring participation and many have developed innovative ways of meeting this.

@dietstartstmoz

Mr hayes do you really think an employer visit or access to a website is impartial careers guidance? I think not. It is information gathering.

regarding the new careers service - what is the minimum that a school has to provide regarding careers edcuation, information, advice and guidance.

If a school decides not to spend the money on impartial careers guidance then what support do their students receive? Is this area going to be included in Ofsted reports? If not then why not?

Schools don't have to provide this until September 2012, Connexions will cease March 2012 - where do the students go for advice during this time?

@dotnet

Should 'Internships' as a form of apprenticeship, be OUTLAWED if no pay is forthcoming?

What is Mr Hayes' view on the morality of firms who dangle the carrot of possible future employment before the noses of university leavers, stipulating that these young people must fund their own lunches and fares to and from work in a spirit of gratitude at the goodness of an employer providing 'work experience' in accepting their unpaid labour?

You've probably inferred that I and, I'm guessing, the vast majority of mums and grans view unpaid internships as slavery, pure and simple.

Will anything be done to protect new graduates and other vulnerable unemployed people from this practice?

Internships can be an excellent way to get into the professional jobs market. They typically offer graduates the opportunity to spend a few months with an employer, applying their learning in a working situation and building the work ready skills they need for employment.
As we set out in the Social Mobility Strategy we encourage business to offer internships openly and transparently and to provide financial support to ensure fair access. This financial support could consist either of payment of at least the appropriate national minimum wage (NMW) rate, or alternatively payment of reasonable out of pocket expenses where this is in compliance with NMW law.
We want to make as many opportunities as possible available to talented young people from all backgrounds and avoid closing down potentially valuable options. Some interns do not qualify for the NMW, for example where the intern is acting as a volunteer. For this reason we do not rule out unpaid internships from the Graduate Talent Pool, but no employer is left in any doubt about his or her obligation to comply with NMW legislation.

So no good, current women politicians at all then?

We expect that schools will work in partnership with local authorities and external careers guidance providers to ensure that young people are supported. Local authorities will continue to be responsible for additional support for those who would otherwise suffer disadvantage.

We expect - what if they don't, will I as a parent be able to take action for 'failure to educate'?

@longfingernails

Hello Mr Hayes,

The biggest burden to small businesses taking on young people who don't necessarily have the most academic CVs is the immense amount of red tape, "rights" legislation, and other assorted socialist nonsense, much of it coming from the EU. Big companies like Rolls-Royce with HR flunkies galore can afford it; a 2 person family firm can't. But we all know that small businesses are the real engine of the economy, and the biggest employers.

What are you doing to repeal red tape, undo Labour's disastrous mountains of legislation, fight diktats from unelected eurocrats and thereby make it easier/cheaper for a small business to take a chance on someone? Cameron's "one in, one out" PR-soundbite on regulation is a recipe for disaster - what we need is more like "one in, 100 out"!

We announced in November 2011 further ways to make it easier and quicker for an employer to take on an apprentice, particularly for SMEs. We will do this by bringing down to 1 month the time it takes for an employer to advertise an apprenticeship vacancy, removing all health and safety requirements which go beyond what health and safety legislation requires, working with training providers to develop new service standards for supporting SMEs to be included in all contracts for Apprenticeships delivery from 2012, and streamlining support services for SMEs through the National Apprenticeship Service