Learning providers call for single apprenticeship policy and agency

Speaking at its annual conference, ALP chairman Martin Dunford said that the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills needed to create a single policy for training and apprenticeships.

He wants to see all funding channelled through a single government agency that would be responsible for overseeing all training and apprenticeships funding.

This could improve co-ordination in the sector and make it easier to secure funding for initiatives to reduce the Neet (not in education, employment and training) population, he added.

Dunford welcomed recent coalition initiatives such as a £150m increase in apprenticeship funding, but added: "We need ministers to be even bolder if we want to avoid a lost generation of young people and a raft of employers complaining that they don’t have the skilled recruits available to take advantage of any upturn.  

"This requires greater co-operation between government departments to enable central and local funding mechanisms to commission more integrated employment and skills provision."