Given the political consensus on the importance of apprenticeships, few public bodies seem to be willing to put their heads above the parapet to voice concerns that this particular form of work-based learning might not actually be the be-all and end-all.

But it seems that confirmation last month of the targets for the public sector has been enough to tip London’s local authorities over the edge.

Let’s recap: apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon unveiled a target of creating an additional 200,000 apprenticeships in public sector organisations by 2020, through the requirement that at least 2.3 per cent of the workforce in England’s public bodies should be apprentices.

The new duty, which will apply to organisations with more than 250 employees, will start on 1 April, as part of the Enterprise Act 2016.

While 2.3 per cent sounds teeny in the grand scheme of things, London boroughs reckon that the change means they will be put under pressure to increase their creation of apprenticeships by more than 570 per cent.

Lobby group London Councils says that the new public sector targets will lead to the boroughs, which have created an average of 690 apprenticeships per year since 2009, being burdened with collectively delivering 4,674 per year. Quite an increase.

The body is particularly exercised about the fact that schools have been included in local authorities’ share of the target, which has pretty much doubled the number of apprentices the capital’s councils are required to lay on - despite the fact that councils aren’t responsible for recruitment decisions at these schools. The targets are “completely unrealistic”, reckons Peter John, London Councils’ executive member for business and skills, who added: “Imposing unachievable targets in order to shift the blame on to [local] authorities if the government fails to meet its own standards is unfair and unacceptable.”

Given the difficulties of increasing the take-up of apprenticeships in London compared with other parts of the country over the past few years, it seems that the goodwill to support the government’s push to create 3 million apprenticeships by the time of the next election is starting to run dry.

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