Kirklees Council push for apprenticeships to address 'massive skills shortage'

Councillor Graham Turner (Labour, Golcar) outlined the employment situation in Kirklees and spoke highly of apprenticeships at the latest meeting of the council’s Economy and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Panel.

He said: “This will not bear fruit overnight. Getting people trained does take a number of years.

“We know we have a massive skills shortage in Kirklees and we know our employment record is not great. We also know that some of our mean incomes are low compared to other parts of the country in terms of parts of West Yorkshire for instance so we need to drive those skills up.

“Not only will it benefit the people involved because not obviously better paid jobs, more skills, better life outcomes and that’s really really important for our residents.”

He added: “We need to do all we can to persuade, cajole people that apprenticeships are a really good thing. I think there’s been, in the last 20 years, a bit of a stigma around apprentices and I say this from someone who did an apprenticeship, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

“We do need plumbers, we need electricians, bricklayers, people to mend cars, those sorts of things, traditional apprenticeships, we need those going forward.”

Gillian Wallace, head of employment and skills at Kirklees Council provided an update on the council’s policy around post-16 education, training, and apprenticeships, sharing some startling statistics.

Some of the challenges experienced within the borough include too many jobs paying below the National Living Wage and Kirklees’ adult population having lower skills levels than the England average. This was said to impact productivity and in turn, wage levels.

The gross weekly pay for Kirklees residents was also revealed to be 4.5 per cent lower than the English average in 2022.

Ms Wallace said: “Many of the challenges we see now are not recent and it’s an accumulation of a lack of investment and a lack of activity in the past.” She also explained that employers are grappling with a skills shortage and an inability to recruit as residents struggle with the cost of living crisis.

An Employment and Skills Plan has been put together to address these challenges, which is currently in the early stages of delivery.

The priorities of the plan include empowering young people, digital inclusion, supporting communities to grow and progress, and skills for the future. A variety of organisations are included in the Employment and Skills Partnership such as businesses, further education colleges, universities, and the DWP.

Despite the scale of challenges outlined, Coun John Taylor (Con, Kirkburton) explained that he felt some positives ought to be mentioned after looking at the graphs presented to the panel. He said: “Although they’re not all brilliant, actually in some of them our performance is better than when you look across West Yorkshire or the UK. I think we should perhaps celebrate that a bit more.”

The Coun highlighted that the number of adults with no qualifications in Kirklees was decreasing more rapidly than the national or West Yorkshire average and that the number of people with NVQ Level Four qualifications or above was increasing faster than the national average.