Three million opportunities seems like an awful lot. Three million opportunities for someone to earn a salary while gaining crucial skills that could pave the way to a successful career: this is a significant number in a country of 53 million people.

This week, TES highlights two of the more unusual apprenticeship schemes around, which demonstrate the sheer variety of routes available.

And yet, the government has been criticised from the beginning for setting a target of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020. Quality will be sacrificed for quantity, some say. Employers will just rebrand existing training, others claim.

It seems, however, according to research exclusively revealed in TES, that even if the government meets its target and creates millions of high-quality apprenticeships, this does not necessarily mean that the same opportunities will be available to everyone. People from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, from low-income families, and with health problems and disabilities are less likely to undertake an apprenticeship, according to the Learning and Work Institute. There is also significant gender segregation.

A ‘culture change’ in apprenticeships

There are a number of reasons for this - some of them obvious, such as barriers to access for those with health issues and disabilities. But many of the reasons, I suspect, are much less tangible and much more difficult to tackle. It goes without saying that discrimination, direct or indirect, is one of those.

It is also a fact that girls continue to apply more commonly to industries in which apprenticeships are less well paid than others. So it would seem that there are cultural barriers in play here, too.

The Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network is a step in the right direction: employers leading by example to encourage diversity. Better careers advice, starting early in school and including parents and communities, is also crucial. But cultural change, among employers and among applicants, will take time. And only when that happens will 3 million apprenticeships have any chance of truly being 3 million opportunities for all.

@JBelgutay