By Graeme Strachan

ONE OF Scotland’s leading business figures has warned First Minister Jack McConnell that his plans for skills academies could fall flat if the Modern Apprenticeship Programme is not improved.

Gerard Eadie, chairman of CR Smith, said the Scottish Executive must also commit adequate investment and resources to the Modern Apprenticeship Programme to meet their expectations for jobs.

Mr Eadie said the Executive must look at supporting the employer through wage rebates or subsidies that recognise the costs of training an apprentice, particularly in the first two years.

His comments come as a Lloyds TSB survey revealed UK firms cite the skills gap as a bigger threat to business than bird flu or terrorism.

The problem seems to be particularly acute in Scotland, where 56% of businesses are struggling to recruit skilled workers, compared with 47% of firms in England and 46% in Wales.

Mr Eadie, who started out as an apprentice glazier before setting up CR Smith, has long championed the Executive’s Modern Apprenticeship Programme.

He believes that access to these apprenticeships is vital to grow the Scottish economy, to fill the current skills gap and provides a route for many young people to a well-paid job and income security.

However, the current consultation document relegates the role of employers to “ancillary matters,” and Mr Eadie believes this could completely undermine the move to create skills academies, whilst continuing to hinder the Modern Apprenticeship scheme from flourishing further.

He said, “The skills academies are indeed a welcome development, which could provide the basis for a career or indeed further education. Having said this, with the prospect of a new generation of graduates from the skills academies, the Government must also commit adequate investment and resources to the Modern Apprenticeship Programme to meet their expectations for jobs.

“A robust and widespread Modern Apprenticeship Programme will meet the challenge to provide these young people with the opportunity to capitalise on their new skills.

“Being in work is the single most important factor about the Modern Apprenticeship Programme.

“That the apprentices are employed, put into a ‘real’ environment and provided with a supportive infrastructure is central to the scheme.

“Therefore, it is crucial going forward that the Executive recognises that without the employer’s support, there would be no Modern Apprenticeship Programme.”

He went on to explain the challenges to the employer, which have to be addressed if private business is to play its full part.

Over a four-year programme, the apprentice, learning through his mistakes on the job, is a cost to the company for the first two to three years.

Whilst the Government pays the apprentice’s college fees, the employer pays the apprentice’s wages.

Work colleagues on “piece work” often see apprentices as a disruptive factor, adversely influencing their earning capacity.

Customers paying for a premium/quality and efficient job do not always want apprentices on their project.

Because so few companies invest in the apprenticeship programme, once the apprentice is time-served, there is a queue of other companies, who have not made such an investment, waiting to offer him work.

Mr Eadie added, “The commitment of the employer to the Modern Apprenticeship Programme is massive and is based on a ‘leap of faith’ with every individual who walks through the door.

“Many take on the apprentices for all the right reasons: because of a social conscience and in recognition of the need to help fill the skills gap in our economy.

“However, whilst there is a strong commitment by the employer to train the individual in a trade and for work, there is little guarantee of a long-term commercial benefit for the companies who take the time and trouble to train these apprentices.”