Concern over UK apprenticeships and further education plans

London - The Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) has highlighted concerns over Government targets for doubling the number of apprenticeships by 2020 and the need for Government, business, industry and the wider engineering community to work together to improve Further Education for the benefit of the economy.

In its annual review of the engineering and technology labour market, Engineering UK 2007, ETB cites a number of positive findings within the education sector, including a slow but steady growth in the number of pupils sitting chemistry, physics and maths A Levels and passing GCSE maths. However, the report also reveals a 26% decline in the number of learners taking Further Education engineering courses, including apprenticeships, over the last three years.

The Board also notes other concerning trends including regarding engineering apprenticeship completion rates, which it found remain just 3 in 5. Meanwhile, it added, around 50% of engineering postgraduate students in UK universities come from outside the UK and the number of registered engineers has fallen by 21,500 in the past decade.

Engineering UK 2007 also found a 16% decline in the number of 16 year olds by 2018. This decline, it said, coupled with increasing rates of participation in Higher Education, will leave a rapidly decreasing pool of potential apprentices to fulfil the Government¹s ambitious target of a 60% increase in apprenticeships by 2010/11.

Whilst the ETB welcomes recent Government investment in apprenticeships across all ages, many more apprenticeship places need to be made available for the over 25s in order to combat the 16% decline in school-leavers by  2018," said Dr John Morton, chief executive of the ETB. In order to remain globally competitive, the engineering sector needs to attract career-movers and people in their twenties and thirties as well as highly motivated young people.

"The ETB believes that the long-term solution to shortages of skilled engineers lies in Government, business, industry and the wider engineering community working together to widen access to engineering training at all levels and for all ages groups, as well as increasing capacity in the further education sector to cope with the demand created by current apprenticeship targets."