Moors authority raises fears of apprentice crisis

Apprentices must account for at least 2.3 per cent of a public sector employer’s workforce but the North York Moors National Park Authority say competition from private firms means the public sector is in danger of falling short of that figure.

Young people are becoming more selective about their direction after school, park bosses say in a new report, which reads: “While this target (2.3 per cent) does not present a challenge to the Authority, it does mean that there is significantly more competition to attract apprentices.

“The picture in North Yorkshire is such that there are simply not enough young people looking for apprenticeships for the public sector to meet its target - this is before the needs of the private sector locally are taken into consideration.

“An inevitable consequence of this is that young people are becoming more selective in what they choose to do and more aware of what other employers offer.”

The Moors National Park Authority employs 16 apprentices and has trained more than 100 others over a period of 15 years in which its programme has picked up regional and national awards.

But the national park is unable to offer the same wages as the private sector. A first year apprentice is paid £130 per week and then the minimum hourly rate for their age in year two.

Planning officers believe that to continue to make the park’s apprenticeships attractive, there must be “something more coherent around support in travelling”.

Not all young apprentices can drive and public transport links either do not exist or are not timetabled for working hours, the report states. To address this on an ad hoc basis, the authority has organised car shares, subsidised bus travel and in one case has even helped cover the cost of renting a scooter.

The authority takes part in career events for young people to encourage more potential applicants, but officers are concerned about how apprenticeships can be portrayed in schools, saying: “Schools can sometimes present apprenticeships less positively than they might do.

“While on the one hand this is disappointing, schools have their own financial issues and it is understandable that they wish to fill their sixth forms.”

The report goes on to explain how the public sector does now have the ability to tap into a much wider pool of possible new apprentices now that funding restrictions for recruits aged over 24 have been lifted, but that the authority was mindful of providing chances for local young people to train, get jobs and continue to live locally.

Officers said they would undertake more work on apprentice pay and travel arrangements and will make new proposals to authority members later this year.