By Zachary Boren
The number of professional apprenticeships available in Islington has more than quadrupled in recent years, according to government statistics.
There were 890 apprenticeships on offer in Islington in 2012-13, up from only 200 in 2005-06, in a trend that reflects the Coalition Government’s emphasis on apprentice work.
Click on your borough to find out how many apprenticeships it offered last year
Earlier this month, Islington Council announced its intention to recruit at least 30 apprentices every year henceforth as part of its commitment to tackling youth unemployment.
Apprenticeships are vocational training programmes designed for young people not in education. Individuals receive a minimum hourly wage of £2.68 for their work.
Mark Seel, who is on a PR apprenticeship at a communications agency in Islington, said: “My apprenticeship has given me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have got anywhere else. I’ve been earning while I learn and have been making a real contribution to the business.”
Some, however, see the rise of professional apprenticeships as as serving employers more than the young people they employ.
Ben Snaith, a campaigner for the fair-pay advocacy group Boycott Workfare, which last year supported Radical Islington’s protest against Marks and Spencers’ hiring practice, said: “These figures are part of a worrying trend in London and the UK – employers benefitting from increasingly large amounts of underpaid labour, while exploited young people are forced to spend more and more time in below minimum wage or unwaged work.
“Apprenticeships – and the unpaid traineeships that are supposed to prepare young people for them – substantially benefit employers at the same time they normalise unpaid and underpaid work,” he said.
Last year, as the Government cemented its pro-apprentice policy, more than half a million apprenticeships were on offer across the country, 45,000 of which were in London.
Despite offering hundreds more apprenticeships than even a few years ago, Islington has fewer than many other London boroughs, ranking 26th out of 33.
Outer London boroughs Croydon, Newham and Bexley provide more than 2,000 apprenticeships each.
“We want it to be the new norm that young people either choose to go to university or begin an apprenticeship,” said Vince Cable, the Business and Innovation Secretary, last week following news that the Government will increase funding for such programmes.
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Image: National Assembly for Wales
