Apprenticeship in UK / Dominated by older workers and existing employees says an expert

 Most apprenticeships offered by UK employers are given to existing members of staff, making it harder for young people to get on the schemes, an expert said yesterday.

Speaking at a Work Foundation conference on skills in London, Lizzie Crowley, senior researcher at the Work Foundation, said: “Around 80% of apprenticeships go to existing members of staff. The sector is dominated by the over-25s.”

In some sectors the figure is even higher. “In social care the figure increased to 90%,” added Crowley.

Shadow universities, science and skills minister Liam Byrne claimed the framework currently in place for vocational learning was to blame for the imbalance. “The skill system isn’t flexible enough to adapt and get young, unemployed people into the workforce,” he said.

Byrne called for the number of apprenticeships in the UK to increase dramatically. “It’s harder now to get onto the apprenticeship scheme for Jaguar Land Rover than it is to get into Oxford University,” he said. “This demonstrates that there is a very serious problem in this country around this issue.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at HR Magazine – Apprenticeships dominated by older workers and existing employees.

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