TUC calls for public sector apprentice quota

Unions have backed a motion from Ucatt calling for government contracts to include clauses requiring contractors to provide craft-based apprenticeships.

The move, which the Trades Union Congress (TUC) unanimously passed, came as skills secretary John Denham announced that the government was establishing a ‘clearing house’. The aim is to match apprentices at risk of redundancy with employers so that they can complete their training.

In his speech to the TUC, Denham emphasised that the planned 42 000 apprenticeships by 2012 “will provide proper training, in real jobs so that we can build the sector’s future and that of its workforce.”

He added: “We don’t want to lose young, skilled trainees from the industry. In the past construction has been kept afloat by an uncertain and fluctuating pool of migrant labour.”

Wilf Flynn, executive council member of Ucatt for the northern region, said: “You don’t train a tradesperson by sitting them in a classroom. If we don’t get it right, we won’t have apprentices today and we certainly won’t have them tomorrow.”