Cable to bolster apprenticeship pay

A proposal to create a single national minimum wage for 16 to 17-year-olds in work and first year of apprentices will be presented to the Low Pay Commission (LPC). It would mean around 31,000 apprentices in the first year of their programme will gain a pay rise of more than £1 an hour. Cable said: "The National Minimum Wage has successfully protected the incomes and jobs of the lowest paid workers in the UK. This year it will see the first above inflation rise in the minimum wage since the recession." The proposal to the LPC would see wages will rise from £2.73 to £3.79 an hour on current rates. Terry Scuoler, chief executive of EEF, said: "Many manufacturing businesses will welcome the business secretary's commitment to increasing pay for apprentices, as this will go some way increasing the status and demand for apprenticeships. We have also made a recommendation to the Low Pay Commission that the apprentice rate is scrapped, and instead learners paid their age-specific minimum wage, which would give Apprentices a significant boost to their pay." Katja Hall, CBI deputy director-general, added: "Apprenticeships are a vital route for young people to get a step on the career ladder and are part of the answer to solving the UK's skills crisis. Yet too few apprenticeships at the moment go to the young and relatively unskilled. "Companies already pay their share into training, so raising the cost of taking these young people on would be unwise and put off many smaller firms from getting involved."