Push to raise awareness of apprenticeships

More students need to be made aware of apprenticeships as an alternative to going to university, according to current apprentices and experts who have spoken to the BBC.

More than 4,800 people aged 19-24 started an apprenticeship in the area covered by the West Midlands Combined Authority in the last academic year, according to the latest figures.

But Anna Noemia Dossantos, six months into an advanced manufacturing diploma and aiming to become an engineer, said not everyone was aware of apprenticeships as an option.

"I've got six friends at uni right now, two of them are looking for apprenticeships and they say to me, 'I wish I'd done that instead'."

Many of those friends are in their first year at university, she said, and amid an ongoing debate about student debt, they have questioned their choice.

"An apprenticeship is great because you've got the work, the pay and the learning all balancing together," she said.

The long hours of lectures involved in a university course was big driver for her to choose an apprenticeship instead.

Dossantos continued: "I'm quite a hands on person and four days a week, we're on the shop floor."

The West Midlands has the third highest rate of 16-24 years olds classed as NEET (not in employment education or training) of any region in England.

The government has pledged to create an extra 50,000 apprenticeships and said there have been 353,500 apprenticeships started nationally in its first 12 months in office.

Staff with In-Comm training in Walsall, who run Dossantos's apprenticeship, said their annual survey of more than 350 young people found more than half, 54%, had no idea of the schemes available in their area.

Recruitment manager Jayne Guest, as passionate an advocate of vocational training as you are likely to find, said it was largely a communication problem.

"We try and reach as many people as we can but to make an informed decision they have to first be informed, so we try and go out to schools and do taster days, but unless they know, they don't know," she said.

Guest said schools "need to be aware of what is out there".

She said many young people did not want to sit in a classroom anymore and would rather learn by doing.

It is a similar story for another apprentice, Nathan Wilkes, who spoke to us during a lesson on how to find faults on household electrics.

"University to me was an option that was available," he said.

"I did want to do it but when I figured out that industry experience is something a lot of people lack when they leave uni, I thought that's something I wanted to take on."

He also said being paid at the same time was a big draw.

West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker said £5m was being ploughed into support for apprentices such as help with travel costs.

"We've got around a quarter of the workforce with low skills or no skills in this region and we've got too many young people out if work," he added.

The mayor said skills were his number one priority and apprenticeships were a key part of the plan.

"[The £5m] can help with bus fares to get them to training opportunities, support for uniforms and also help they might need to prepare them for work, so also mentoring and guidance," Parker said.

Earlier this week, the government announced a clearing system for apprenticeships which it said would simplify the process for finding out what apprenticeships were available.

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