It is rare nowadays that students leave university and land the job that they’ve always dreamed of. Most of us can empathise with this, dreading the daunting prospect of having to finally make it on our own in a world where jobs are becoming scarcer and degrees are becoming more common. However, with the recent announcement of the plans to cap benefits for under-21s to fund apprenticeships, things may just turn around.
Apprenticeships are not merely restricted to building and engineering; one particular apprenticeship that caught my eye was a vacancy for an ‘Apprentice Social Media and Marketing Assistant’. This role provides the correct training and experience working for a firm, surely providing an advantage over a non-vocational degree. A salary of £95.55 a week actually provides more than the maintenance loan granted to undergraduate students. The requirements were a C in GCSE Maths and English and no other qualifications. This helps those who would prefer having a job than A-levels.
A salary of £95.55 a week actually provides more than the maintenance loan granted to undergraduate students
So why then has there been such an uproar with the benefit cut?
The increase in apprenticeships will not occur without other changes in welfare. Osborne announced that youths on the Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) must take part in community projects.
It comes down to a fundamental belief that those who are healthy and of working age should be earning a living, including young people. In my opinion, partaking in community projects would provide valuable experience. Alongside this, those who take part would receive a “youth allowance” of £57.35, which may in turn, inspire a stronger work ethic. It is certainly important to instill a culture of working and learning, as expressed by David Cameron’s statement at the Conservative party conference that, “… We should be saying, ‘you should be earning or learning.’”
For those who have a definitive career path, apprenticeships would launch you straight into the work place
It is difficult to assess whether money should instead be used to fund a more diverse range of university places. However, with living costs getting higher for students and the talk of fees being raised, apprenticeships really do seem to be the best answer. They are a brilliant alternative for people who do not want the ‘uni life’. For those who have a definitive career path, apprenticeships would launch you straight into the work place.
The website National Apprenticeship Service claims that 85% of apprentices will stay in employment once qualifying, showing that they are good for career purposes. This is in comparison to the headline published in The Guardian (2013): “The proportion of recent graduates working in jobs for which a higher educational background is not usually required was 47%”. One would hope that apprenticeship would in turn help youth unemployment to fall.
The Observer (2013) compiled analyses that questioned whether reducing unemployment benefits mean that the claimants will find work
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation carried out research, which found that in Europe, cutting the equivalent to the JSA would actually lead to unemployment figures rising. The Observer (2013) compiled analyses that questioned whether reducing unemployment benefits mean that the claimants will find work. This is due to the fact that the claimants would be more likely to take jobs with lower pay and then quit shortly after to receive benefits again.
This then means that apprenticeships can contribute more to overall growth: The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) reported that apprenticeships have injected around £1.8bn of economic benefits to UK businesses and organisations in 2013, directly benefiting our economy. In comparison, states that the Government has spent about £4.91bn (DWP Annual Report, IFS) on unemployment benefits.
So perhaps a more important question: would you rather tax revenue was spent on a system which traps people in a perpetual state of dependency? Or would you rather see government spending be directed towards providing people with a meaningful future? I would definitely say the latter.
Emily Ling
Image courtesy of altogetherfool via Flickr
