The Government are committed to using the unique leverage of their £220 billion procurement programme to promote skills training and apprenticeship opportunities. In September 2009, I announced a new ambition to support 20,000 new apprenticeships over the next three years through Government procurement. Departments and Agencies will play a central role in delivering this ambition by building skills and apprenticeships considerations into both new and existing contracts.
The Department is supporting skills training and apprenticeship places through its procurement spend. In the Learning and Skills Council’s Building Colleges for the Future programme, recent estimates suggest that on average one in every 20 workers employed on college construction projects is an apprentice.
In April the then Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Office of Government Commerce published practical guidance on how skills training and apprenticeships can be promoted through procurement processes. The guidance has been widely adopted.