Plans to create hundreds of thousands of apprenticeships for the public sector have been announced by the government today.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon has revealed a target of creating an additional 200,000 apprenticeships in public sector organisations by 2020. Today’s announcement builds on the government’s requirement that at least 2.3 per cent of the workforce in public bodies in England should be apprentices. The new duty, which will apply to organisations with more than 250 employees, will apply from 1 April as part of the 2016 Enterprise Act. 

Mr Halfon said: “We are committed to breaking down barriers and creating a ladder of opportunity for people everywhere. For our public sector to be the very best in the world, we need talented and ambitious people of all ages and from every background.

“Businesses across the country have well and truly got behind apprenticeships. Now it is time to ensure the public sector reaps the benefits of apprenticeships and young people get the opportunities they deserve.”

‘Breaking down barriers’

The Civil Service has already pledged to achieve 30,000 apprenticeship starts in England by 2020, and it is expected that the UK Home Civil Service will recruit a similar number outside of England.

Last year research by policy consultancy SQW concluded that the government’s target of creating 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 through the apprenticeship levy would be unlikely to address an “endemically low level of apprenticeship adoption by employers”.

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