Edge’s Executive Director, Olly Newton, gave evidence to the inquiry growing and sustaining engineering and technology apprenticeships for young people, led by Lord Knight and Lord Willetts, in partnership with EngineeringUK. The inquiry seeks to explore the decline in the uptake of apprenticeships among young people and their potential in plugging the skills gap in the engineering, manufacturing and technology sectors. Engineering-related apprenticeship starts in England are 9% lower than in 2014/15, with those in engineering and manufacturing technologies, falling by a concerning 34%.
Olly made the case for better support for SMEs who are interested in hiring an apprentice but lack the resources to do so, and for more devolution to combined authority to set the local skills agenda. He also argued that improvements can be made to the schools system to make vocational pathways more appealing to students, such as addressing accountability measures that narrow the curriculum, reversing the planned cuts to BTECs, and more workplace experiences for learners and teachers. Our skills shortages work, highlighted the need for stronger careers guidance in this sector, with only 23.6% of young people aged 11 reporting that they know what people working in engineering do.
