IT was heartening to read about the success of young people in their GCSE results in last week’s Craven Herald. Their achievements are all the more impressive for having studied under Covid restrictions, so all credit to them and their teachers. Many of them will be starting apprenticeships supported by local Colleges and this should be a good career route. There are a couple of pitfalls with apprenticeships as they are currently structured however: firstly it should be noted that the minimum wage for apprentices is a derisory £4.30 per hour – even lower than the national minimum wage, which is in turn less than half of the national living wage. Secondly whilst most employers offer a route from apprenticeship into permanent employment, there is no obligation to do so and a significant minority of employers use apprentices as cheap labour and will recruit apprentices with no intention of offering them permanent positions when they complete their apprenticeship.

Since our employment laws are so skewed against young people I would advise prospective apprentices to do their research into employers. Responsible employers should be paying significantly more than the minimum wage and should be able to point to examples within their workforce of staff who have come through the apprentice route.

Doug Clark

Cononley