Jonathan Gullis held a debate in Parliament on apprenticeships where he urged the Government to make changes to the Apprenticeship Levy to help wean the economy off cheap migrant labour and drive economic growth.
As a former teacher, Minister for School Standards and Co-Chair of the APPG for Apprenticeships, Jonathan is determined to increase access to apprenticeships, allow people to earn whilst they learn and drive social mobility.
The debate centred on the Apprenticeship Levy which Jonathan wants to see reformed to that businesses and communities can benefit from the power of apprentices.
Since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced in 2017, overall apprenticeship starts have fallen from 500,000 in 2016/17 to 276,000 in 2022/23, and Jonathan argues that this needs to be “urgently reversed.”
During the debate, Jonathan made the point that the Apprenticeship Levy should be used to fund shortgaes in the labour market. He argued that “the Migration Advisory Committee should work much more closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education by identifying gaps in the market where unspent Levy funding can be used to support the training of homegrown talent that will help close the skills gap.”
In addition, Jonathan argued that the Levy transfer mechanism should be much more flexible so that businesses can drive investment into local areas and help areas like Stoke-on-Trent to retain talent. Reforms to the Levy could be of enourmous benefit to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and Jonathan argued that significant Levy underspends, which amount to over £4 billion since its introduction, should be used to help businesses with the ‘hidden costs of training an apprentice’.
Policy Exchange’s excellent paper, ‘Reforming the Apprenticeship Levy’, put forward a number of recommendations to streamline the process and support SME involvement in the training of apprentices including financial support for off the job training.
Jonathan supports Policy Exchange’s suggestion that SMEs should be supported with £2500 to fund ‘off - the –job' training for apprentices under 25, with an additional £500 for completion. Given that FE week reported that HMRC pocketed around £415 million generated from apprenticeship levy receipts last year, I want to see the Government explore whether there would be scope to use some of this underspend to help back SMEs with the £3000 payment, as advocated by Policy Exchange, which they advocate would cost around £200 million.
Jonathan also made the point that more needs to be done to ensure young people from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit from apprenticeships rather than being short-changed by their university experience. He pointed out that “Families should not be penalised if their child opts for an apprenticeship rather than other post-16 education. But current welfare policy requires Child Benefit to be removed from families with children aged under 19 in apprenticeships, unlike if the child were studying for A-Levels or T-Levels.”
Commenting, Jonathan Gullis said: “It was really important to raise the issues surrounding the Apprenticeship Levy in Parliament today. The Conservatives have done great work in improving school standards since 2010, and I want our legacy to be reflected in the further education sector too.
Some of the innovative ideas I raised are included in the New Conservatives skills paper which would help recruit more homegrown talent rather than cheap foreign labour and help revive our manufacturing industry like ceramics.”