Surrey: promoting apprenticeships

The UK was near the bottom of the European apprenticeship league, but at least Surrey is making an effort.

NEETS - those 18-24 year-olds not in education, employment or training - are at last in focus. Perhaps recent riots brought the issue to the top of the political agenda. But back in May, some three months before the street mayhem, the Daily Mail warned of Britain's need to address the problem. The paper published disturbing Eurostat figures to 2008 which showed the UK fourth from bottom in Europe, with only Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta performing worse.With 17 out of every hundred young people not engaged in society, Britain needed then to do something to correct the situation. That figure of 17 was a fall from 12.1 in 2003, incidentally.

No wonder plumbers, mechanics and engineers were so hard to find; no wonder the last Labour government had sought to attract so many skilled East Europeans into the country to do the jobs so many young Englishpeople were untrained to do. Right at the top of Eurostat's table were East Europeans, with:

• Poland at only 5
• Slovenia at 5.1
• Czech Republic at 5.6
• Slovakia at 6
• Lithuania at 7.4.

By 2008, Labour had been in power for eleven years, or since the twenty-four year olds on Eurostat's list were thirteen! And the eighteen-year olds were seven! No-one could possibly suggest the British government had not had time to formulate and execute a strategy to engage the young.

Now the BBC reports that "Surrey County Council wants to see 200 apprentice places filled in 100 days.  The local authority also said it would continue taking on apprentices at the council where 60 people have been hired in just over two years. The drive to boost apprenticeships will be launched at a business breakfast at Epsom Racecourse on 27 September, during Surrey Youth Fair.

"He said the authority wanted to make sure no-one in Surrey was classed as "not in employment, education or training", or Neet, by 2015. He said the number of Neets in the county was low compared with the national average but the council was not complacent. Figures from the council said Surrey had less than four in a hundred young people classified as Neet, compared with the national average of more than six in a hundred."

Clearly, there's been some improvement since 2008. A figure of four would shoot Britain to the top of Eurostat's table perhaps - depending of course on what the Poles had achieved over the past three years.

But encouraging signs and ambitious targets from Surrey. Why was there ever a campaign to attract everyone into university to graduate in humanities subjects and the like when trades were ignored. But it wasn't just that, was it? According to the BBC, "Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said education in Britain is holding back the country's chances of success in the digital media economy. Dr Schmidt said the UK needed to reignite children's passion for science, engineering and maths."

Of course, Schmidt was focussing on promoting technology innovation and advances. But any savvy politician would add plumbing and carpentry to that list. Surrey appears to have a few savvy politicians, it appears. How do other counties compare?

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