Apprenticeships not a poor man's degree anymore: PM
15 Feb 2012
Apprenticeships will no longer be considered a "poor man's degree" with the introduction of higher-level training, the Prime Minister has said.
Combining Apprenticeships with higher education will become far more common place in Britain, David Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said: "We are expanding the number of higher level Apprenticeships, those that involve degree-level courses, and I think this is vital because for years people have sort of said that Apprenticeships are the poor relation of higher education.
"I don't think they are at all and I think what we are going to see with the expansion of the higher level Apprenticeships is many people going into them as they leave school, spending time doing that and then going on and doing a university degree linked to their Apprenticeship skill.
"That is what has happened for years in Germany and it is going to be happening much more in Britain."
"I think for years in our country we have had excellent higher education, excellent university education, but we haven't put nearly enough into vocational education, Apprenticeships, into skills training. I think for years people have said this country hasn't taken skills seriously, it hasn't taken Apprenticeships seriously, and I really think that we are now doing that," he added.
Mr Cameron said the Government was committed to addressing some of the "historic weakness" of Apprenticeship programmes and would reduce the cost and bureaucracy involved in Apprenticeships to encourage more businesses to participate.
Source: The Press Association