Sir Alan Sugar isn’t the only one looking for up-and-coming employees of the future. Phil Cooper looks at a new apprenticeship initiative to bring some young blood into local government offices Let’s be honest, working for local government has never been viewed as sexy. Vital? Yes. Rewarding? Hopefully. Top of the careers list for most school-leavers? Unlikely. The problem this creates for the ageing workforce in most councils has been identified with increasing frequency over the past three or four years. Now, London local authorities are leading the way in a pilot project to encourage more young people to consider pursuing an apprenticeship with the capital’s public sector employers. The pilots, organised by the London region of the Learning and Skills Council are seen as the latest response to the public sector’s growing need to attract new blood into the workforce. Local government’s representative on a recently-completed national task force charged by the Government with promoting apprenticeships was Sheffield chief executive, Sir Bob Kerslake. He told The MJ: ‘We need to boldly address the training gaps in the present and future workforce. Apprenticeships have a key role to play in giving young people the skills they need to do the job to the high standards required by employers, including local government.’ Council employees are older on average than those found in the national economy. Only 6% of local government employees are under 25, compared with 15% in the national workforce. Nearly two-thirds of council staff are aged over 40, and 31% are over 50 – and due to retire in the next 15 years. Historically, apprenticeships have been a more prominent feature in councils in the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside, accounting for around half of the 5,300 apprentices in local government identified in the Employers’ Organisation’s last national survey 18 months ago. The London region, at that time, had less than 400. The LSC’s pilot for public sector apprenticeships in London embraces one strategic health authority, DEFRA, the Valuations Office Agency and six London boroughs, Southwark, Lambeth, Hillingdon, Ealing, Waltham Forest and Barking & Dagenham. Between them, the councils are employing and helping to train 65 apprentices – out of the total 98 on the pilot programme – in a range of subjects or ‘frameworks’, including business administration, manual trades, customer service and childcare. Apprenticeships, run nationally by the LSC, offer 16 to 24-year-olds the chance to work and train at the same time, with the intention that the participants should complete a course of about one year with an NVQ Level 2 – equivalent to five GCSE’s grades A-C – or, in the case of an advanced apprenticeship, a two-year course leading to an NVQ 3 – equal to two A-levels or a vocational A-level.) All London councils are being invited to attend a series of workshops to encourage further participation in the Public Sector Apprenticeship programme. These are scheduled for 7 April, 4 May and 1 June, at the TUC Congress Centre in central London. Commenting on the apprenticeship programme, LSC regional director, David Hughes, says: ‘Apprenticeships offer an attractive employment and training route for young people. ‘We have been delighted with the response we have received from local authorities, but we need more to embrace this programme. ‘The enhancements that we have made to a number of frameworks have been very well received and we have made a commitment to increase the number of people on this pilot to 600 in 2006/07,’ he says. n