Plymouth Needs Apprentices

Apprenticeships!  What happened? 

Research statistics from the House of Commons library show a huge fall in the number of startup apprenticeships in Plymouth.   There were 1,350 fewer in 2022/23 than in 2015/16;  570 fewer in Moor View, 490 in Sutton and Devonport and down 290 in SW Devon, an average of 34%.

People across the country, especially the young, were let down by a Conservative party that failed to give them the opportunities they deserve and give businesses the flexibility they desperately need.  The declining number of people starting training in Plymouth shows just how badly broken this administration has left our apprenticeship system.

Urgent reform is needed and the Liberal Democrats have committed to increasing the apprenticeship wage, to stop treating apprentices as second class workers and to reform the apprenticeship levy to boost numbers and stop the decline we have seen under this government.