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This article titled “The Brexit clock is ticking – time for Hammond to boost apprenticeships” was written by Richard Partington, for The Observer on Sunday 19th November 2017 12.46 UTC<\/a><\/p>\nGo to university and you get a head start on your peers. In a Britain of haves and have-nots, this remains a widespread perception. But Tom Ratcliffe disproves it. Unlike his history graduate friend, who is working in Sports Direct in their home city of Derby, the 23-year-old has had more luck as an apprentice to one of the world\u2019s oldest clockmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have friends coming out of university without a job. There just isn\u2019t the work out there for them,\u201d he says. Instead of graduating with a huge debt and no guarantee of work, Ratcliffe is among thousands of apprentices in Britain being paid to learn on the job.<\/p>\n
In the Budget on Wednesday, Chancellor Philip Hammond will be expected to address the problem of skills shortages in Britain, as demands for more investment in schools and training escalate in an economy needing more workers like Ratcliffe. After years of underinvestment in workplace training, and faced with the prospect of firms losing access to migrant labour, the UK needs to bolster its domestic workforce. Companies are increasingly reporting shortages<\/a> of key skills.<\/p>\n Ratcliffe is one of several apprentices at Smith of Derby. Established in 1856, the firm is responsible for famous timepieces the world over, from the tower clock at St Paul\u2019s cathedral to ones on the customs house in Shanghai and Arsenal\u2019s emirates stadium.<\/p>\n With just 57 staff and revenue of about \u00a33m a year, it\u2019s a small company. But it\u2019s a big name in the world of horology, maintaining about 4,500 clocks around Britain. About 20 staff were dispatched to put clocks on public buildings back by an hour when British summer time ended last month.<\/p>\n Despite a government push on apprenticeships, few employers have responded. The number of apprentices starting in May, June and July was down by 61% compared with the same time last year<\/a>, raising doubts over the government\u2019s pledge of 3 million new apprentices by 2020.<\/p>\n Smith of Derby has taken on apprentices for the first time in several years. The firm was founded by an apprentice, John Smith, whose descendants still own the company. \u201cAt the moment, we have a succession issue, so we have to bring new blood in,\u201d says managing director Bob Betts.<\/p>\n More apprentices will soon be needed, as decades of access to flexible, skilled migrant labour looks set to be curtailed by Brexit. Some economists believe the availability of trained migrant labour has made firms complacent. Figures from the European Commission\u2019s statistics body, Eurostat, show that British companies invest half as much per worker in vocational training as the EU average, and that investment in skills has fallen by 9% in real terms over the past decade.<\/p>\n Yael Selfin of accountant KPMG says: \u201cCompanies will need to invest more in their staff, because labour isn\u2019t going to be as easily available. You need to start with schools, giving youngsters more opportunities, as well as more apprenticeships.\u201d Accountant Deloitte estimates that a third of non-British workers in the UK are thinking of leaving within five years \u2013 equal to 1.2 million jobs.<\/p>\n Developments in technology are also putting a greater emphasis on skills, with 15 million jobs thought to be at risk from automation. And with the productivity of UK employees stubbornly refusing to rise, additional spending on training could boost efficiency levels.<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s apprentices learn to work with industrial revolution-era kit, which may seem a strange fit for millenials comfortable with smartphones and social media, but they also get the chance to travel. The company has growing sales in the Middle East, and projects in Asia and North America.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoy working hands-on with old stuff,\u201d says Sam Schoonderwoerd, another of the apprentices. \u201cIt was never something I considered when I was younger, but it\u2019s fallen into place.\u201d The 20-year-old from Derby is in his second year at the firm and spends a day a week at college studying for a higher national certificate \u2013 equivalent to the first year of a university degree.<\/p>\n With tuition fees at over \u00a39,000 a year,<\/a> many young people are put off higher education at a time when the cost of living is rising<\/a>. Hammond\u2019s budget will be expected to cater for this generation, as the Conservatives look to reverse a flight by younger voters to Labour.<\/p>\n More help with apprentices could be a remedy, if technical training is seen as a path to a good job, without high levels of debt. Mitchell Eaton, 20, another apprentice at Smith of Derby, says he found it hard to concentrate at school and prefers to learn on the job: \u201cRather than doing university, I\u2019m learning and getting paid at the same time \u2013 which is a bonus.\u201d.<\/p>\n But if Hammond wants more apprentices like these, he will need to show businesses that the government is ready to support their hiring plans.<\/p>\n The Confederation of British Industry has made protecting per-pupil funding in schools a key priority in its submission to the chancellor ahead of the budget. Skills, training and the country\u2019s industrial strategy will also be key themes for the group. Director general Carolyn Fairbairn says investing in education and training is the \u201cbest economic growth strategy we have\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2022Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk<\/a>, or sign up to the daily Business Today email here<\/a>.<\/p>\n guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n Published via the Guardian News Feed<\/a> plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Budget should include measures on training and skills shortages, with British firms set to lose easy access to migrant labour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10220698900476085_349663338397715":"","twitter_1370559253_1370559253":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[27,61,469,815,24,468,29,96,64,467,75,470,135,105,65],"class_list":["post-13867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-apprenticeships","tag-article","tag-brexit","tag-budget-2017-november","tag-business","tag-confederation-of-british-industry-cbi","tag-education","tag-features","tag-main-section","tag-manufacturing-sector","tag-politics","tag-richard-partington","tag-the-observer","tag-uk-business","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Apprentice](\"https:\/\/media.guim.co.uk\/d31fbd3f23cefa7de6e26cf25380ce5af5bb06af\/0_352_6720_4032\/1000.jpg\")