David Lammy - Expanding and Delivering Apprenticeships
Thistle, Marble Arch, London - 3 April 2008

Good morning. Thank you for inviting me today. Another lawyer, Sir Thomas More, once said that "education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills or abilities, but making visible what is hidden as a seed". Almost 500 years later, those words still have resonance because the promise they hold has yet to be fulfilled. The people of this country, young and not so young, have a vast reservoir of potential. But for many, for far too many, it has not yet been given an outlet.

The Government doesn't have to create talent - talent is already there. Our job is to provide the incentives and the opportunities that will allow it to be unlocked. To give what's hidden in the seed the chance to grow and flourish.
Britain's a small island in a big world. In the past, we've sometimes been able to remain prosperous by fully developing the talents of a small minority of our people and letting those of the majority lie dormant.

Surely, no one seriously thinks that we can get away with that any longer. There'll be a heavy social and economic price to pay if we continue to waste the potential of the many.

So we need an education and training revolution - not just in schools, colleges and universities, but in the workplace, too.

I think you all know already that we in the Government see Apprenticeships as being critical to achieving our objective of becoming a world leader in skills by 2020.

And we have already made progress, apprenticeship starts have increased almost three-fold in the past ten years, and completion rates have increased from 24% to 63% in the past 6 years.

But we face still bigger challenges if we are to achieve the ambition we set out earlier this year in "World-Class Apprenticeships: Unlocking Talent, Building Skills for All".

I am absolutely committed to meeting those challenges and increasing apprenticeship opportunities, starts and completions throughout the country whilst also driving up the quality of provision.

We want Apprenticeships to be a mainstream option for young people and will ensure that by 2013 every suitably qualified young person who wants to take up an apprenticeship place will be able to do so.

As we grow a high quality programme on this scale we anticipate that apprenticeships will become even more attractive to young people. That will help us to increase the number of 16-18 apprentices by an additional 90,000 by 2013.

We will maintain our commitment to meeting young people's demand and, as this grows, we will work with employers to expand the programme even further. On this basis, we anticipate that around one in five of all young people will be undertaking an apprenticeship within the next decade.

And will work with employers to develop a more flexible and responsive model for apprenticeship frameworks; providing incentives payments to targeted businesses; introducing an apprenticeships credit delivered via skills accounts; and improving the supply of apprenticeship places within the public sector where much more can still be done.
My Ministerial colleagues and I have already outlined our vision for a focused delivery system, including a separately branded 'National Apprenticeships Service' with end-to-end accountability for the apprenticeships programme, a dedicated field force to support employers and learners, and appointment of a director of the service to lead and champion at the most senior level.
This expansion will only be achieved by breaking down barriers to participation. When I go around the country and meet young apprentices, they invariably tell me that they are learning a trade because their father, uncle or family friend practised it before them. The element of inter-generational mentoring is a crucial part of the apprenticeship experience and can provide some of the respect and bonding which we need in today's society.
But I want apprenticeships to go beyond their traditional roots and expand into sectors and parts of society where they have never had a history before. I want to see more BME apprentices, more women working in trades which are currently dominated by men.

I visited a site in Islington last year to see at first hand a project funded by my department and run by Kier South, designed to encourage women to seek employment in the construction industry. I was impressed by the motivation of the women involved and am sure they will succeed - and apprenticeships in the creative industries, IT and media as well as in engineering and manufacturing.

This growth must occur across the country, but it will be of particular benefit in London.

London's real challenge is not that businesses cannot attract high quality staff but that not enough Londoners are equipped to compete in a jobs market where traditional non-skilled and low-skilled jobs are rapidly disappearing. Ensuring that Londoners can really participate in London's prosperity is a real challenge. I am absolutely committed to increasing apprenticeship opportunities, starts and completions throughout London.

The current situation is just not good enough. In 2005/06 across the whole of London there were only about 5,000 apprenticeships completions out of a total for England of around 100,000. This shows the breadth of the task ahead to make apprenticeships a real option for young people in London. But it is a task which we are tackling head on and I firmly believe that Apprenticeships do make a difference.

I have recently made a number of visits to employers in London and seen apprentices at work from all walks of life and the difference that they are making in developing their own potential. For example in December I launched the second phase of Creative & Cultural Skills' Creative Apprenticeships programme, at the Bruce Castle Museum in my constituency of Tottenham. There, I was fortunate enough to meet several young men and women, from a variety of backgrounds, who had taken their first steps towards building successful careers in the music business through the practical experience gained during their Apprenticeships.

We will reinforce and strengthen this experience, by improving the apprenticeships blueprint to set out the rights and responsibilities of employer and apprentice and including a signed apprenticeship agreement.
And we will also launch a drive to change the culture around the value of Apprenticeships by providing a national matching service- giving young people who choose apprenticeships parity with the type of service which is taken for granted by those who go through the UCAS system, and high-profile events celebrating the achievement of apprentices.

We will go further. We will improve equality of opportunity and access not just because it's necessary, but because it's right. That will mean, among other things, positive action to encourage young women and young men to consider apprenticeships traditionally limited to one gender and action to ensure that contractual wage regulations set by the LSC are fully enforced.

In that way, and with providers and employers behind us, we believe that there is an excellent chance of achieving our Apprenticeships goals. There is solid support for Apprenticeships from the very top, from the Prime Minister himself.

I would like to lay down a challenge to you all gathered here today. We will only achieve our goals if we work in partnership together. Your input, challenge and support is vital.

We are committed to a vision of World Class Apprenticeships - are you? Will you work with us to increase demand and drive up quality? Can you do your part to increase the number of employers taking on apprenticeships- either individually or through Group Training Associations?
In short can you help us to make our vision a reality? I know that all of us in this room care deeply about apprenticeships and can each provide practical examples of the life-changing experiences which they can provide. The challenge for all of us is to turn this passion and enthusiasm into concerted, coordinated practical action.

I look forward to working with you to continue the good work which has already started. I am confident that, with your support, we can make our vision of World Class Apprenticeships a reality. Thank you.