Stories from Liverpool's apprentices

By Gavin Stamp
Business reporter, BBC News, Liverpool

Trainees at Andrew Collinge are fully employed from day one

Taking a short break from styling a customer's hair at a Liverpool salon, 19-year old Tom Ingle says he has no regrets about training as an apprentice.

"I always knew I wanted to do something creative," he says.

He is on the third year of a NVQ course run by Andrew Collinge Training, the training arm of one of the North West's most successful and respected hairdressers.

Even getting on their course is a real achievement as it received 400 applications last year.

The firm takes on about 80 trainees a year, less than half of whom it employs itself - the remainder hired by salons all over Merseyside and Lancashire.

Those chosen must work hard and show commitment, says training director Sarah Collinge.

They can see it all mapped out for them and that is what makes them want to achieve and reach the next level Sarah Collinge

In return, they will get a level of training quality and skills development which Ofsted described as "outstanding" in its most recent inspection.

"Our retention level is very high," she says with pride, something she feels has a lot to do with how the training is structured.

"There is a very clear career progression. They can see what the next stage is. They can see it all mapped out for them and that is what makes them want to achieve and reach the next level."

Employability

Providing more apprenticeships for school leavers is at the heart of the government's skills and employment agenda.

Ministers have pledged to double the number of apprenticeship places available to 500,000, with Gordon Brown saying that every teenager should have access to training "so they can get jobs for which they are employable".

The need for such initiatives would seem particularly acute in a city where unemployment and the number of people on benefits are both well above the national average.

For many employers in Liverpool, the value in apprenticeship schemes lies just as much in offering precious opportunities to young people as filling vacancies in their workforce.

Those who get onto schemes run by firms like Bellway are the lucky ones

"Obviously there is a shortage of skilled people in construction," says Mally Koo, employment and training manager at housebuilder Bellway.

"We wanted to make it happen for the people of Merseyside."

Bellway has taken on more than 40 apprentices at its Liverpool business over the past three years. Although it cannot guarantee them all jobs at the end, it works hard to match the others with sub-contractors in the area.

Now an assistant site manager with the firm, Jessica Licence is planning to go on to study for a degree in construction.

"If you want to learn, you can learn a lot," she says of her training.

"It gives you the opportunity to prove to the blokes out there I am right half the time."

Determination

Local colleges and industry groups work with Bellway to point people in their direction but with more than 1,000 applications last year, it is inevitable many will be disappointed.

"It's how much you want it," says apprentice joiner Daniel Reardon, who points out that some of those at his college didn't seem bothered about trying to find work.

"I went through the Yellow Pages and bought £30 odd of stamps and just sent my CV off."

Other housebuilders have followed Bellway's training lead but it is proving a slow process.

Many employers seem unaware of the incentives available to them to take on apprentices while others have decided that the financial support isn't sufficient enough, or feel the long-term employment prospects don't justify such an investment.

Jaguar recruits train for four years

"An awful lot of companies are not aware of what they are entitled to. Something is going wrong with the marketing of it," says Jean Hartley, from Build Sefton, a body which seeks to attract construction jobs to one of Liverpool's most disadvantaged areas.

The harsh reality remains that with levels of relative poverty and dependency entrenched in certain parts of the city, a few apprenticeship places here and there may only scratch the surface of the economic help needed to transform the fortunes of whole communities.

More radical solutions are now being pursued with £30m set to be spent on promoting employment and enterprise in six of the city's poorest wards.

"The task is quite enormous," says James Dunningham, from the government-funded Step Clever scheme which aims to create 1,500 new jobs and 500 businesses by 2010.

"The demand is there but it is an uphill struggle," he admits.

"Part of the struggle we have got is developing an enterprise culture where people respect self-employment and those who go off and do their own thing. It is about a culture saying 'this is a good thing'."

Different options

The task may be enormous but there is plenty of evidence that youth training can be enormously beneficial, not only in equipping people with valuable work and personal skills but also in helping to tackle seemingly intractable social problems.

"At 16 youngsters don't necessarily know what they want to do," says Phil Round, who runs Jaguar's apprenticeship scheme at the carmaker's massive Halewood factory.

"They might be sucked into a college programme and realise that's not really what they want to do. Then you get an issue with people not in education or training as they drop out.

"It is not about saying you have got to be in a classroom until you are 18. Some people will go to university, some people want to get their hands dirty and do vocational work."

It is important that you grow your own Phil Round, Jaguar education and training manager

Jaguar offers more than 30 people a year the chance to train as multi-skilled craftsmen, although only a relatively small number will end up being employed there.

As part of the four-year scheme, Jaguar insists trainees study for a Higher National Certificate enabling them to go on to do an engineering degree should they chose.

The emphasis, Phil Round believes, should be on giving young people every opportunity to make the right decisions later in life.

"It is important that you grow your own," he says. "It is a bit like football teams. It is the teams that have good academies that will succeed in the long run."

Apprenticeships are clearly not a panacea for the UK's skills deficit or even a foolproof solution for filling all the current vacancies in the workforce.

Question marks hang over the drop-out rate and the amount some apprentices are paid, with some firms saying grants barely cover the cost of training let alone wages.

But, at the same time, schemes are offering priceless chances for thousands of people to make their way in life as one employer is happy to testify to.

"I can give you a whole list of people who work for us who left school and now, in their mid 20s, own their own house and car," says Andrew Collinge.

"You will never get a poor hairdresser because once you have got that skill, you can't take it away from someone."