Hive-Worcester: Youngsters from ethnic minorities miss out on apprenticeships

Ashley Thaw Ashley Shaw ended up being apprenticed to his father. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Ashley Thaw left school with five good GCSEs and designs on being a plumber. But his attempts to find an apprenticeship proved fruitless. "I must have phoned around 100 firms," he says. "I got an interview with a big firm, but the minute I walked into the place, I could tell they didn't think I'd fit in. I didn't get the job."
Michael Nyamekye left school with two A-levels, but his attempts to find an apprenticeship scheme were also unsuccessful. Over an 18-month period, he applied, and was turned down for, over 150 jobs and apprenticeships. "I was mainly applying for accountancy and administrative roles but, in every interview I walked into, I was the only black guy there. I was very conscious of the fact I was different from all the other candidates."
It is a familiar story, says Jeremy Crook, director of the British Training and Enterprise Group (Bteg), a national charity that works to improve education, skills and employment outcomes for black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.
There is disagreement about how many people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are taking up and completing apprenticeships. Unionlearn, the lifelong learning arm of the TUC, puts the figure at around 6%. Recently released government data suggests 7%. Meanwhile, the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), the government-led agency that works with employers to increase and promote apprenticeship opportunities, estimates 8%. But there is agreement that this is an area that needs attention.
According to Crook, employers' attitudes are part of the problem. Although there have been improvements in some areas (such as childcare and business administration), young people of BME origin are still poorly represented in areas like construction, engineering and hospitality, a trend that can be put down to "an element of racism", says Crook.
Linda Clarke, professor of European industrial relations at Westminster Business School, has carried out extensive research into obstacles for ethnic minorities in accessing vocational training in the construction industry. She says: "The reality is that many employers still want to work with people like themselves. So if they are white and male, the chances are they'll look to recruit similar types."
Educating employers is vital, says Tom Wilson, director of Unionlearn. "Unions are attempting to negotiate equality and diversity training for managers and to promote recruitment strategies that directly target BME candidates, for example in the black press. Employers should go out of their way to offer work experience and open days to BME pupils."
Young people's perceptions are also important, says Crook. "Some black or ethnic minority young people fear they won't 'fit in' in a workplace where their colleagues are predominantly white."
Thaw also believes not enough candidates are applying because they don't see role models doing the same. "Many of the friends I grew up with in Nottingham were brought up by single mothers and had no working male role models around."
But he thinks employers' behaviour is down to stereotyping. "There are so many negative images of young black men. I think some employers are worried about how it might be seen if they send a black guy round to a customer's house."
Crook points out that not only are young people from black and ethnic minorities under-represented in apprenticeships, those who do make it tend to be concentrated in programme-led apprenticeships (sometimes known as pre-apprenticeships). These are generally counted as apprenticeships in official figures, but they do not always lead to a job.
In employer-led apprenticeships, young people are paid by their employer and stand a good chance of getting a job at the end of the training. In programme-led apprenticeships, they start out with a college or learning provider, but many never manage to secure a paid apprenticeship.
Geography also plays a part. Crook explains: "In areas like Yorkshire, which has a strong history of manufacturing industries, there may be more apprenticeship opportunities, while urban areas, which have a bigger population of ethnic minority young people, tend to have far fewer."
Frustrated by his lack of progress, Thaw enrolled on a level 1 plumbing course at his local college, which without a suitable work placement was "less than useless", he says. A year later, when he still hadn't managed to secure an apprenticeship, he relocated to Surrey to live with his father, a self-employed plumber, who agreed to take his son on as his own apprentice.
Thaw, 18, now works with his dad four days a week and attends North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) in Epsom one day a week, where he is working towards a level 2 apprenticeship and is "once again, the only black guy in the class". Afterwards, he hopes to progress on to a level 3 qualification.
Nyamekye, who is now 23, was claiming jobseekers allowance for over 18 months before he heard about an opening at the outsourcing and asset management company Mitie, on their employability scheme, which provides paid training and work experience to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. This led to a full-time job in sales and marketing.
"We can't emphasise enough the importance of mentoring for boosting aspiration and providing career guidance for people from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background," says Sandra Kerr, national campaign director of Race for Opportunity, an organisation (of which Mitie is a member) that is committed to improving employment opportunities for ethnic minorities across the UK.
The government has pledged to create 75,000 new apprenticeships over the next four years. But with plans to phase out programme-led apprentices, BME participation in apprenticeships could sink lower. Proportionally, BME students have already have been hit hard by the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance (EMA). Government figures from 2008 show that while 43% of all 17- to 18-year-old full-time students received EMA, 67% of Black African and 88% of Bangladeshi students were in receipt of this allowance.
Crook believes the NAS needs to do more."The NAS needs to show some leadership. Instead of setting ineffective targets it should be in dialogue with apprentices, employers and learning providers asking 'how can you help improve this situation?'"
But an NAS spokesperson says: "The National Apprenticeship Service strongly believe that apprenticeships should be open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability or learning difficulty. However, we do not have the remit to compel employers to recruit one potential apprentice over another. We are committed to a wide range of activities to promote equality in apprenticeships."