Westminster Life: We need more apprenticeships and opportunities for young people

It is only right that we celebrate the success of more than 750,000 apprentices who are powering skills and productivity in our local economies.

This matters in a city like ours. We are one of the hotspot areas in the country for young people not in education, employment or training. In recent years, we have seen youth unemployment up and apprenticeship starts shamefully down. If we want to improve lives and boost growth, we need to turn that around.

Last week, I co-hosted a Youth Opportunities Summit with Peterborough College bringing together partners from across the city to look at how we improve support, apprenticeships and training for young people. It was great to see so many businesses and partners coming together to look at how we can better support young people into jobs and careers. We have been chosen as a £5 million pilot area by the government as part of Labour’s Youth Guarantee to address this issue. The Youth Guarantee will see all young people offered the chance to earn or learn, Job Centres merged with a new careers service and reform to how apprenticeship funding works.

This goes to the heart of my work in Peterborough and Parliament. I am lucky enough to the Chair of the All Party Group on Apprenticeships working with businesses, colleges and government to improve our offer on skills.

Peterborough is the industrial heartland of our region and can play an important role in engineering, construction and tech jobs but we need the mechanisms in place to bring businesses and learners together.

I have now had the privilege to meet and visit over 100 businesses and their apprentices since I have been elected, including in Peterborough. From butchers in Newborough to world-class engineers at Caterpillar, I have been impressed by both learners and employers. Earlier this week, I met with apprentices from KPMG including Gaby from Peterborough to learn more about how we extend opportunities in the city. Next week I’ll be hosting a discussion in Parliament with National Gas, local business and government to look at how we boost jobs in clean energy and hydrogen, as well as welcoming Peterborough apprentices to the House of Commons.

We must embrace apprenticeships, and that means improving the system. Currently, it is complex, inflexible and it can have a high cost for small businesses. I am lucky to be in key role helping to change the system. The new growth and skills levy, which will replace the existing apprenticeship levy, and include new foundation apprenticeships, is a step in the right direction. These will give young people a route into careers where the nation has skills gaps.

It cannot be stated often enough, nor loudly enough, that apprenticeships not only transform the lives of those who take them, they are also vital to the economy. They are vital to growth. We need to invest in people – people’s skills, people’s energy, people’s talents. Apprenticeships are on a par to university and they should be treated as such.

This National Apprenticeships Week, let’s be loud and proud about apprenticeships. Let’s put apprenticeships centre-stage, in our policy-making, in our economic mission, and in our national culture.