You're Hired (?)......National Apprenticeship Week 2011

It seems to be widely accepted that an Apprenticeship is a valuable way of commencing a career. Indeed, many of the UKs high technology engineering sectors are still heavily populated by such professionals who served 'traditional' apprenticeships in the 1960s and 1970s, combining both academic and practical study which often culminated in a degree qualification and chartered engineer status.

And whilst we can eternally debate the quality of 'modern' apprenticeships, whether or not these apprenticeships 'mask' a government sub plot to drive down or reduce unemployment figures amongst 16-24 year olds, or whether some employers see this as an ideal opportunity to take advantage of cheap labour - there seems to be a common consensus that Apprenticeships could well be the key to the future of many UK industry sectors, particularly in the fields of manufacturing and engineering.

Given the fact that Apprenticeship schemes are meant to be one of the key areas of the UK's education and training policy as highlighted by Business Secretary Vince Cable's recent comments, it is to be hoped that his vision is reflected in the education system and the way in which further education/career options are presented to students at an impressionable age.

Mr Cable said that "investment in training the next generation of highly skilled workers would be key to sustainable economic growth" and that we must put an end to 'outdated values that have seen vocational learning branded a poor relation to academic study'.

Whilst this appears to be a step in the right direction, this is by no means a new concept. Gordon Brown was beating the same drum 6 months in to his tenure as Prime Minister in 2007 and yet here we are 4 years later repeating the same cry for a superior apprenticeship scheme.

The problem is that to eradicate these so called 'outdated values' will involve a complete overhaul of the education system, specifically government targets which currently measure GCSE / A-Level results and progression to further education, but do not account for students gaining employment or entrance to an apprenticeship scheme.

Consequently there seems to be little incentive for teachers to promote the benefits of an apprenticeship scheme and therefore little encouragement for students to follow this path.

In my mind, this is the root of the problem and rather than spending vast amounts of time trying to persuade businesses to offer students apprenticeship schemes, the government should be focussing their energy on developing talent in schools, advocating apprenticeship schemes as a viable route to the job market (and of equal importance as further education) and effectively creating a scenario where employers are fighting over potential employees rather than having their arms twisted to take them on.

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