{"id":21193,"date":"2018-12-28T16:03:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T16:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=21193"},"modified":"2018-12-27T17:11:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T17:11:40","slug":"fmb-say-apprenticeship-starts-are-plummeting-due-to-levy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=21193","title":{"rendered":"FMB say apprenticeship starts are plummeting due to levy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmb.org.uk\/about-the-fmb\/policy-and-public-affairs\/apprenticeships-and-skills\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-21194\" src=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/apprentice_FMB_website_271218.png\" alt=\"people\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" \/><\/a>Apprenticeship starts are falling because of the Apprenticeship Levy which needs to be made more flexible, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).<\/h3>\n<h6><em>image: FMB website<\/em><\/h6>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>FMB writes:<\/p>\n<p>The FMB\u2019s reaction is in response to statistics published today by the Department for Education, which show that there has been a 24% fall in apprenticeship starts for the 2017\/18 academic year compared with the previous academic year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the figures, Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: \u2018Apprenticeships are falling and the Government must take urgent action to reverse the decline. At the recent Conservative Party Conference, the Government announced much-needed reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy but these do not go far enough. From April 2019, large firms will be allowed to pass 25 per cent of Levy vouchers down through the supply chain to smaller firms but the FMB is calling for this to be increased to 100 per cent. This is an important change because in construction, it\u2019s the smaller firms that train more than two thirds of all apprentices. Conversely, large firms don\u2019t tend to directly employ or train tradespeople. If the Government is serious about creating three million quality apprenticeships by 2020, it must ensure the Apprenticeship Levy works for the construction industry.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Berry concluded: \u2018These alarming apprenticeship figures come hot on the heels of the recently published Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) report, which outlined some worrying recommendations for the UK\u2019s post-Brexit immigration system. The Government\u2019s initial reaction was to accept the MAC report\u2019s recommendations. This is deeply concerning as the report suggests that the supply of \u2018low-skilled\u2019 migrant workers should be severely limited. The construction industry relies heavily on low skilled workers, such as labourers, who are essential to any construction site. What\u2019s more, Level 2 tradespeople, such as bricklayers and carpenters, will be deemed low skilled and therefore severely limited in number. This is unwise given the construction skills shortage and insulting given the amount of knowledge and skills these individuals possess. New figures show that there were 2.25 million EU nationals working in the UK in from July to September 2018, 132,000 fewer than one year earlier \u2013 that\u2019s the steepest fall on record. It is therefore even more vital that the Government listens to the industry and reforms the Apprenticeship Levy before it is too late. We need to be training more UK-born apprentices to reduce future reliance on migrant workers from Europe or else the construction sector will grind to a halt. We need tens of thousands more apprentices and tens of thousands of migrant construction workers \u2013 of all skill levels.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmb.org.uk\/about-the-fmb\/newsroom\/apprenticeships-are-plummeting-because-of-apprenticeship-levy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apprenticeship starts are falling because of the Apprenticeship Levy which needs to be made more flexible, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). image: FMB website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21195,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21193\/revisions\/21195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}