“The Government’s apprenticeship drive will force councils to recruit thousands of trainees each year despite them having reduced their own staff numbers by 40% since 2010, councils leaders have warned.
All public sector organisations have been set an annual target of 2.3% of the workforce that should now be apprentices. The LGA is calling for an exemption from the obligation and stressed that councils would have to create 33,000 apprenticeships each year and find an extra £400 million in salaries – the biggest contribution of any part of the public sector including the NHS.
The Association also said that finding money to pay the new apprenticeship level from April 2017 would cost councils £207 million a year and argued that money raised by the levy should be pooled locally to allow local areas to create apprenticeships to fill local skills gap and meet employers’ needs.”
East Devon Watch 