Apprenticeships effect property market

Tenants who wish to rent property and first time buyers are often young people who are hit by the double whammy of unemployment and not being able to raise enough money for a deposit.

In among a torrent of bad news there’s a ray of sunshine in that 10,000 new apprenticeships are going to be started in the UK – which might help some youngsters to get a job and to raise funds to rent or to buy a property.

Backed by government there will be training opportunities created in a number of key industries with placements in some of Britain’s leading companies. Superdrug is creating 1,000 new jobs, Tesco 800, Sainsbury’s 300, Phones 4U 1,000

But the greatest number by far will be in Britain’s beleagured construction industry where an estimated 7000 new places will be offered.

As a government sponsored initiative it is well-intentioned but not without problems. Many apprenticeship schemes have been roundly criticised in the past. The criticism centres on two principal aspects. The first is that the quality of the training can vary enormously, with some employers offering little or no real training and using candidates as merely a useful source of cheap labour. The second is that often the pay is so lowly that apprentices cannot be lured off their state benefits and hand-outs.