Thu, 5 Apr 2012

The government department responsible for pushing apprentices to employers has cut the number of its apprentices it offers internally.

The business secretary Vince Cable (left) has put support for apprentices at the core of the government plans for growth. And recently, David Cameron promised £1,500 to small employers who hire their first apprentice, as reported by recruiter.co.uk in February.

However, according to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph, it has emerged that from 30 apprentices a year before the Coalition came to power, the number of apprentices in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) fell to 14 last year.

A BIS spokesperson tells Recruiter that the figure of six to 10 apprentices in BIS at this time, reported in today’s Daily Telegraph could refer to apprentices who started in previous years and she doesn’t know how many will be taken on this year.

In a statement, BIS says: “As part of cross-government efforts to cut spending and reduce the budget deficit, BIS underwent a major restructuring last year, which resulted in the loss of 22% of the headcount and posts at all levels of the organisation.

“This has impacted on the department's ability to recruit external apprentices and we have concentrated our efforts on offering internal apprentices to enable existing staff to upskill.

“We're committed to growing apprenticeships with a focus on the private sector.”