When ambition isn’t enough: the hidden barriers facing young apprentices

Grant Glendinning is the Chief Executive Officer and Group Principal at Education Training Collective

Is there a skills gap? Well, yes maybe, but I’d argue that actually, skills obstacles are more of a problem. We have created the demand, but we are struggling with the early entrant supply.

I’ve worked in further education for 28 years and in my current role as Chief Executive of the Education Training Collective (an outstanding group of further education colleges across the Tees Valley, including Bede Sixth Form, NETA Training, Redcar and Cleveland College and Stockton Riverside College) for almost four years, and in that time the apprenticeship landscape has changed beyond recognition.

Apprenticeships have been seen as a consolation prize, the pinnacle of post-secondary education and more recently a convenient and effective solution for staff upskilling – and everything in-between.

We have created the supply in school leavers; apprenticeships are much sought-after and are regarded as a great choice for learners after they leave school. Young people know that they can earn while they learn, learn from those on the job with more experience and meet peers in the classroom on day or block release. For employers, too, apprenticeships have many advantages: pay a lower ‘trainee-style’ wage, share the skills of your best talent with the workforce of the future and grow your own team from grassroots.

It’s easy to see why an apprenticeship is great! But, if they are so great, why are numbers of new start apprentices on the decline?

In the Tees Valley, last year only one in every four apprentices were aged between 16 and 18, with the remainder being adults; it was only slightly different at my college group, one in three. According to the House of Commons Library, the numbers of apprentices in the UK have hovered around the 320 – 350,000 mark since the pandemic – showing little chance of a return to the highs of half a million plus in 2011.

So is it experience, or lack of it, that’s holding young people back?

I came across a young man recently who had been a well-regarded, high-performing member of his employer-led cohort. He worked hard, took advantage of every extra-curricular activity made available to him, but he is still, after more than 100 apprenticeship applications, without the engineering role he has been working towards for the last two years. The reason? He has been told he hasn‘t got enough experience.

Perhaps one of the biggest shifts could be the introduction of structured, low-barrier ways for young people to gain meaningful workplace exposure before they even apply for an apprenticeship. For example, introducing pre-apprenticeship work tasters, short skills-bootcamps co-designed with employers or even a funded ‘try-a-trade’ placements that allow 16–18-year-olds to build confidence and basic competency without the pressure of formal employment.

Employers, in turn, would benefit from clearer incentives – from reduced onboarding bureaucracy to small wage subsidies – to open their doors earlier and more often. Colleges and employer networks can collaborate by creating shared placement pools, so even SMEs with a more limited capacity could offer micro-experiences that still count.

This isn’t a call or a need for yet more complicated and complex reforms, but practical steps that remove the impossible loop young people face: you can’t get the apprenticeship without experience, but you can’t get experience without the apprenticeship.

Talent isn’t the problem. Access is. It’s time to rethink the rules, cut the red tape and give young people the chance they’ve already earned. Who’s ready to lead the change?