Major blow to construction industry after ‘disastrous’ fall in number of young builders
THE number of completed apprenticeships in construction has fallen nearly 40 per cent in five years, figures show.
Labour’s education chief Bridget Philllipson blasted the “disastrous” decline.
She also vowed to deliver “the next generation of brickies” if her party gets into power.
But ministers hit back, saying they had to ditch lots of low-quality apprenticeships inherited from Labour.
Education Minister Robert Halfon said he is doing everything to raising standards and getting more people training for the construction industry.
Department for Education stats show the completed apprenticeships in England fell from 12,420 in 2018 to 7,700 in 2022.
Ms Phillipson said: “This disastrous fall is bad for young people aspiring to great careers in the building trade, bad for people who want to get on the housing ladder and bad for our country.
“Builders are the backbone of our country and without good recruits, we won’t see new houses built or grow our economy.”
She wants firms to have more flexibility in how they spend the apprenticeship levy, a tax to provide training, to get more recruits.
Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer will this week detail his plans to boost education and training.
But Mr Halfon insisted the Tories had to “totally redesign” the apprenticeship framework due to Labour failures.
Ministers also said the number starting construction apprenticeships rose nearly a third to 26,000 last year.