When our Government that states it will “look carefully at how we can improve our evidence base……through our 2019 programme of research” it needs to be challenged, and held to account. The idea that such a response is made to its own people or its own policies would be bad enough but when they take that line to a group of 11-18 year olds then it needs to be given a very rough shake. According to this article “The Youth Select Committee, made up of 11 to 18 year olds, published its Realising the Potential of Work Experience report in November last year, and submitted a series of recommendations to the government, which has now responded.

The committee “asked the DfE to work alongside the Department for Energy and Industrial Strategy to help businesses understand the importance of offering work experience, give them practical support, and encourage and support young people into placements, yet the government gave the committee no assurances on how it would improve this situation in its response, saying only it agreed more could be done”

It is deeply disturbing that a Government takes such a pathetic approach, given that many companies including the one I work for do the best we can to engage with places of education and young people. The one critical element that is missing in our view is the promise made by this Government to take the apprenticeship levy and use it to assist SME’s to help define the apprenticeships they need. So far some 3 years after that was supposed to have happened, there has been absolutely no progress.