Hi All,

It has been quite a tough week this past week for the brand of apprenticeships, skills and employability hasn’t it?

The Panorama programme was as far as I could see reasonably balanced in its arguments but given what it was trying to achieve I do feel a bit more substance to the good practice examples that it highlighted would have been beneficial.

Since the programme was aired, there has been calls for Public Enquiries, root and branch change, private providers to stop delivering Government funded programmes because of profit grabbing on one hand and on the the other a call to just leave well alone.

I think the answer must be somewhere in between these two very opinionated positions don’t you?

If you put anything under the microscope you will find something that surprises you or something that you didn’t expect don’t you think?

I just think sometimes we just forget to stop to take a breath and ride on the back of frenzy or join in the excitement of a good old rant!

In the UK we at some point have been lured into the view that profit is bad, but if profit or (surplus as some call it) is not made then we would not have any service delivery at all. I do agree that in some instances the proportion of the profit that has been drawn down by individuals seems excessive but that is sadly the world we live in. A world of excess.

I know this word is way over used but here I go saying it again….let’s just have some “balance” some debate without extreme, without condemnation. In situations where this is the way we try and justify our own views, it never ends well it generally ends up settling on the side that can shout the loudest.

Apprenticeships, skills and employability programmes, no matter if they are delivered by private sector organisations, colleges or public sector have their poor and have their exceptional areas, but in general I think personally it is far better than it was in the late 90,s and early 00’s. There is always areas of improvement and there always will be, just as there will always be somebody who is looking for the quick money and can’t be bothered to do the job properly.

We will return to this debate probably every year and every government so…….

If you think you have the answer on how to even this out then please tell us…

Posted By:
Paul Champion

http://www.paulchampionuk.com
http://www.apprenticeshipblog.com

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/champo
Twitter: ChangeTWYT

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