Nursery World - Apprenticeships: Right from the start

Taking on an apprentice provides the opportunity to potentially grow and mould a loyal worker - so why aren't more nurseries adopting this approach to tailor-made talent? Mary Evans finds out.

Urgent reforms are needed to the Government's apprenticeship programme to raise standards and ensure that training providers are not making excessive profits, according to a House of Commons report.

Following an 11-month investigation, MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee also called on the Government to adopt a formal definition of the term 'apprenticeship' which, they said, must state 'apprenticeships are for developing skills not simply for the validation or consolidation of existing skills'.

Last year, the Government invested £1.2bn in the apprenticeship programme, with 457,200 people starting training as an apprentice. But the report concludes there is scope for improvement and recommends a number of reforms, including closer monitoring of both the funding and effectiveness of schemes. The MPs complained that the Government had adopted 'a hands-off approach in respect of the profit levels and value for money of training providers'.

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