It lasted only two years until the next shuffle, with Lord Mandelson back in government, saw the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills coming into being, assuming responsibility for skills, apprenticeships and higher and further education.
It has been relatively easy to increase the number of individuals participating in relatively low-skill, low-cost apprenticeships, but much more difficult to increase the numbers working towards completion of relatively high-cost, high-skill apprenticeships.
By drawing on a series of studies undertaken between the early 1990s and 2012 we can assess how the financing of apprenticeships has affected employer participation, especially in relatively high-cost, high-skill apprenticeships at level 3 and above.
Therefore, if all training firms were to provide mainly firm-specific skills, apprenticeship training would become less attractive for prospective apprentices and impact the supply of talented youth, thereby also reducing the benefits enjoyed by training firms.
In surgery, the faculty-to-student ratio has decreased from 1 2 to 1 10, with less individual teaching time – an essential part of surgical skills apprenticeship [ 6].
"Vocational skills are equal to academic skills, and apprenticeships can offer excellent career progression".
Previously on the planning brief, Boles was this week reshuffled to a joint post shared between the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to work on adult skills and apprenticeships.
For services to the promotion of IT skills and apprenticeships.
Improving skills through apprenticeships is therefore an excellent idea, which businesses should applaud.
The numbers learning new skills through apprenticeships are on the rise, and the Government has pledged to spend £140m to open up 35,000 new schemes over the next year.
