L20 inputs to the G20-OECD Conference on ‘Quality Apprenticeships’: Investing in skills and training goes hand in hand with upgrading production and bring young people into quality jobs

The L20 joined the 2nd G20 Conference on ‘Promoting Quality Apprenticeships’ on 25 February 2015 in Antalya.

It welcomed the focus on the issue of promoting quality apprenticeships (QAs) and the commitments to smooth transition from school to work by increasing the number of apprenticeships available to young people.

However, L20 delegates also emphasized that

  • boosting supply of skilled labour is not sufficient to propel the economy onto a higher value added and higher skill trajectory;
  • it is misleading to assume that skills once created will automatically be utilised to productive effect;
  • too many firms continue to compete on the basis of low skill, low cost and low value added production strategies;
  • L20 representatives argued that VET policies cannot rely on stand-alone training interventions, the focus should instead be on:
  • skills policies need to address the range of contextual factors that shape approaches to skill formation and usage;
  • as supply-push effects are not going to do the trick, skills policy needs to be integrated within a broader employment and labour market context;
  • there is also a demand side problem – a potentially low demand by employers for skills relative to their supply (underuse of skills).

Moreover, L20 delegates expressed concerns regarding the growing gap between the rhetoric on QAs and reality on the ground: Quality apprenticeships are not sufficiently flourishing with numbers of apprentices decreasing in some countries.

In Australia, the number of apprentices and trainees in-training in December 2013 was at 392 200, a decrease of 12.9% from one year earlier. In the 12 months leading up to 31 December 2013 commencements decreased by 25.9%, to 244 700.

In Germany, the number of apprenticeships offered by firms also decreased and fell to its lowest level since the German reunification.

In the UK, total employer investment in training decreased by five per cent in the period from 2011 to 2013 (from £45.3bn to £42.9bn).

L20 delegates also referred to the positive link between trade union presence and training. This is reflected by a number of cases, where trade unions have been able to encourage employers to upgrade production and competitive strategies and to invest more in training, and thus to closing off the low-road towards competitiveness (based on intensive use of low-wage, low-skill labour).

The L20 emphasized that in all countries of the G20, in order to address crisis rates of unemployment of young people, to address the needs of other displaced, older workers and to ensure the greater participation of women in the labour market, we need to drive investment in apprenticeships and other skills development to create an upsurge in the number of places available.

For more details, see the L20 “Quality Apprenticeships – What are trade unions doing?” briefing