When skills minister Jacqui wrote to Skills England on June 22 to commission an urgent review of apprenticeship funding, she did something British ministers rarely do. She admitted a well-intentioned policy produced the opposite of its intended result, concluding “…the apprenticeship system is in need of reform.”
Apprenticeships among 16–24-year-olds fell by 40 per cent over the previous decade. More than half of new apprenticeships went to learners over 25. An employer levy to open the career ladder became a way to subsidize incumbent workers. The first rung of the career ladder was missing.
Across the Atlantic, the U.S. was watching, though not carefully. It never had a national apprenticeship system. It has a patchwork of federal goals that shift with presidential administrations, federally registered programs, state agencies, and industry intermediaries.
