The Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation (SNIPEF) have released their Scottish election manifesto, calling for support for employers to take on more apprentices
UK apprenticeships are becoming an increasingly unrealistic prospect for many businesses, according to the paper titled Supporting Apprenticeships: Fixing Scotland’s skills shortage.
This, in turn, is putting jobs, public safety, and the delivery of Scottish net zero at risk.
Employers want to train apprentices
With the skills shortage still looming large, evidence in the paper suggests that 80% of businesses agree that apprenticeships are essential to maintaining standards, safety, and workforce capacity.
Despite this, 55% also say they are very unlikely to recruit an apprentice in the next 12 months.
This is due to government funding for apprenticeships having been frozen for decade, meaning that employers have to shoulder a disproportionate share of the cost, in addition to rising wage payments, supervision, and college-release costs, not to mention rising material costs.
Fiona Hodgson, chief executive of SNIPEF, said: “Employers are not walking away from apprenticeships; they are being forced out by a system that no longer reflects the real cost of training in a safety-critical profession.
“For most plumbing and heating businesses, the cost of an apprentice is not recovered until the third year, meaning the first two years are a growing and unsustainable financial burden.
“Without reform, small firms will continue to be priced out of training, deepening the profession’s ongoing skills shortage, ultimately impacting households, communities and the wider economy.”
The paper can be read in full here.
The apprenticeship gap has never been bigger
Earlier this week, a paper from DART Tool Group showed that the apprenticeship gap reached more than 14,000, of which 9,700 are in the housebuilding sector alone.
This means that for every apprenticeship position available, there are nearly 100 jobs unfilled.
Ryan Paterson, managing director at DART Tool Group, commented: “The findings from our ‘Apprenticeship Gap Report’ have demonstrated that trades apprenticeships are facing a leaky pipeline. While the Government’s commitment to increasing the number of apprentices in the upcoming years is a step in the right direction, we also need to address the retention crisis and focus on the support and nurturing of our apprentices.
“The construction sector is facing a sharp decline in the number of young people completing apprenticeships, with 59% of construction apprentices dropping out of their course before completion. To bridge the gap between recruitment and qualification, there needs to be high-quality mentorship that equips learners with skills and confidence.
“Continuing to invest in supportive environments, smarter workforce planning, better training frameworks, and professional-grade site tools, apprentices should have the tools to be able to thrive and complete their apprenticeship, helping to address the growing workforce shortage and gradually fill the positions needed to meet the ambitious housebuilding targets.”
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