Hello Again Everyone

Welcome back and hello to new readers. Today I will be speaking about a subject which has been coming up in quite a few conversations that I have been having with people of different ages and different ethnic backgrounds across various industries.

The subject in the limelight is apprenticeships. All through the ages this form of training has been in operation in all walks of life and in every business set-up. It may not have been known as apprenticeships in some industries but in essence it is a period of time in which someone who is brand new to the work that they have chosen (or maybe the only work available to them) gets introduced to the basics and is made aware of the skill-set development required to master that skill and undertakes a training period to achieve those skill sets.

There are many forms of the apprenticeship, for example, a refrigeration engineering apprentice will have to serve a 3 to 4-year apprenticeship or in my case it was 5 years. During this period his salary will increment up through the grades and he will possibly end up being on a six-month approvers rate at the end of this period. Granted, most of these apprenticeships were based in what is referred to as the tradesmen industries, Engineering, Building, Tailoring, maybe even doctors and nursing could sneak in here. They were though essentially manual labor type industries.

The question which is now coming into play is, where have all the apprenticeships gone? We are losing skill-sets at an alarming rate. This piece from the UK paper The Guardian (Jan 2018) stated that:

“The number starting apprenticeships dropped to 114,000 between August and October, down from 155,700 in the same period in 2016. That followed a 59% drop in the previous three months after the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in April last year.”

One of reasons given for this is that “Verity Davidge, head of education and skills policy at EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said: “Today’s figures should act as a wake-up call to government which has failed to act on industry’s growing concerns around the apprenticeship levy.”

“This worrying trend is not just hampering employers’ ability to get the skills their business needs, it is taking away invaluable opportunities for the next generation to undertake training and secure a future job. It is clear the apprenticeship levy and wider reforms aren’t working and need a radical rethink.”

This article is referring to apprenticeships in the U.K. How is your country being affected?

Do you think that it should be the government’s responsibility to fund apprenticeships?

Personally, I think that the private sector would be better taking control of their own destiny in this case before there will be no master craftsmen around to carry on passing down their knowledge.

In my next blog I am going to go into this subject from a historical viewpoint, till then be well and may your God go With You

The Unstoppable Coach ™

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