Nathalie Thomas: Apprentices need to be fired up with some real enthusiasm

EVERY time I hear the word "apprentice", I shudder. It can take hours to banish Lord Alan Sugar - who, like Marmite, you either love or hate - and his highly irritating catch phrase "You're fired!" from my thoughts.

With National Apprenticeship Week kicking off from today, I realise I am in for a painful few days. The government, which is this year pouring some 1.3 billion into supporting workplace schemes, will go into overdrive eulogising the benefits of on-the-job training.

When you look at the statistics on youth unemployment, it's difficult to knock the government's enthusiasm for apprenticeships. While UK unemployment as the whole stands at 7.9 per cent, joblessness among 16 to 24-year-olds has soared to an eye-watering 20.3 per cent.

Britain's students have already taken to the streets over tuition fees and no doubt ministers want to avoid similar scenes to those witnessed in countries such as Tunisia, where a well educated but largely out-of-work youth population was the driving force behind the push for regime change.

The UK government is today expected to score a few early victories when it comes to persuading more firms to offer on-the-job training for young people. A number of big names, including BAE Systems and Microsoft, will pledge to collectively create 1,000 extra places for apprentices over the next three years.

So far, so good. But some worrying evidence has emerged to suggest that some of these efforts may be in vain.

Far from waiting for wannabe Lord Sugars to fire them, it appears that many apprentices are finding their own way to the exit. Official figures reveal that more than a quarter - 26.2 per cent - of those who started a workplace training scheme in 2009-10 dropped out. That's more than three times the number of young people who bowed out of university during the same period.

The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), the government agency in charge of managing taxpayer-sponsored training, claims the drop-out rate has come down substantially over the past few years. In 2002, for example, ministers would have been counting their chickens if just a quarter of participants completed their apprenticeships.

But employers say the problem can't simply be swept under the carpet. Companies report that many school and university leavers are increasingly ill-equipped for the world of work: turning up hours late, disliking "uncool" uniforms, struggling to keep up with the long working week.

One company, National Accident Repair Services, says some of its apprentices refused to get up on a Monday morning.

The fund management industry in Scotland tells a similar tale.Investment firms last week felt moved to warn that unless universities work more closely with the industry to improve the skills and attitudes of graduates, growth of the industry here - and south of the Border - could be stunted by a swelling skills gap.

Terms such as "greater collaboration" always turn me off, but on this occasion it appears that is exactly what is required. Firms could play their part by going into schools and colleges more often, and explaining exactly what a job with them entails. That way, apprentices will have a better idea of what is in store and they will understand what benefits await them if they stick the course out.

Meanwhile, school and university careers services also have to buck up their ideas and ensure they send out students who fully understand the changed times we live in. Jobs are no longer going begging, and as Lord Sugar himself proves, getting to the top requires a lot of hard graft, determination and patience.

Young people are full of ideas, entrepreneurial spirit and technological know-how but sometimes a bit of tough love wouldn't go amiss.

Despite Lloyd's blow, data centres can still be a winner

SCOTLAND'S bid to become the destination of choice for data centres has been dealt a blow by Lloyds Banking Group's decision to pull the plug on a 250 million investment in a site in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. The move is understood to have been triggered by a spending review ordered by incoming Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.

Along with the life sciences sector, data centres have long been talked up as an area of enormous potential for the Scottish economy - one report in 2007 suggested data farms could even boost GDP by 10 per cent.

Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government and local authorities have genuinely invested a lot of effort in promoting the sector and in this instance, it appears simply to have been a case of bad luck.

Those behind the Ecclefechan project assure they are in "ongoing discussions" with other interested parties. With the Scottish economy in desperate need of a few boom industries to make up for several years of public sector squeeze, let's hope they succeed.