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Firms Relabelling Low-Skilled Jobs As Apprenticeships, Says Report (bbc.com)
Fast food giants, coffee shops and retailers are relabelling low-skilled jobs as apprenticeships and gaining subsidies for training, a report says. BBC: The study by centre-right think tank Reform says many firms have rebranded existing roles after being obliged to contribute cash to on-the-job training. It adds that 40% of government-approved apprenticeship standards do not meet a traditional definition of them. The government says "quality" is at the heart of its apprenticeship reforms. As part of the changes, it introduced an apprenticeship levy on organisations paying more than $4.3m in salaries a year. They have to pay 0.5% of their wages total into a "digital account" held by HMRC. They then "spend" these contributions on apprenticeship training delivered by registered providers. They can also get back up to 90% of the cost of training. But they are also entitled to pay apprentices lower than the standard minimum wage.
If this article didn't make sense, here's why: In America, apprenticeships are generally the realm of blue collar trades.
In the UK, this is true, however they also broadly include it to also mean "paid internship for office jobs".
Why? Probably the same reason a boot is a trunk, the letter U is sprinkled everywhere, and beer is served at room temp (not bad) /Giorgio A. Tsoukalos meme hands saying "England".
This isn't a problem in America because of the word apprenticeship's association with blue collarwork.
Something I wondered for some time, which might be unpopular here.
It seems that businesses, as if by definition, alwayy try to use every nasty trick and cheat and trick and lie, or worse, malictiously conceal information, with a complete disregard for healthy human behavior like being soical and having empathy, or just being plain fair,
and laws play the anti-virus program, always behind several steps.
So naturally, as a computer expert, I notice that this calls for a whitelist instead of a blacklist. Which would mean criminalizing firms by definition, except for fixed things.
But obviously that does not sound right either.
And I don't know if that is just because of my western capitalist bias. (I'm from Luxemburg. The tax haven and country of banks. It's in my blood.)
In any case I would like a no-compromise complete-fairness-for-everyone solution, and can'd find any.
Post-knee-jerk, and post cultural / socially conditioned mindsets, what do you guys think?
I hire a high school student to mow my lawn
I hire another high school student to babysit my children
Where and how to apply for government subsidies for both of my apprentices?
Serfdom. Maybe the "Firms" could just provide a nice thatched hut and some gruel as pay... /s
Law passed that charges companies money if they don't have enough jobs called "apprenticeships". Companies respond by retitling arbitrary jobs "apprenticeships". How surprising.
This is old enough news that the backlash against this has already hit print media.
The Guardian print version is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/ne...
Or if you prefer the same content as a podcast, it's here:
https://www.theguardian.com/ne...
Since this is England, the whole thing directly relates to class. Upper-class (or perhaps the Brits call that 'Middle-class') jobs essentially require a an internship now before you can get a real job. Finishing an internship means being able to afford to live with no paycheck in London for six months. This means only the wealthy can afford to have an internship. This locks the educated non-wealthy out of the higher-class professions.
So this is not about serfdom -- a path with no escape. It's about making people pay for jobs. You have to BUY your job. (LIke you'd BUY a commission in the army in a Jane Austin novel.) And if you cannot afford to buy your job, you're the wrong sort of person for work here anyhow. Nudge nudge wink wink.
Germany structured it's corporate law to require that the corporate boards INCLUDE labor. The very definition and function of corporations are done by government; you can do it foolishly or smart... So, NO it would not happen in Germany because labor has a real voice in management.
Emissions is another whole issue and one where labor is aligned with management. A solution on this one could be to have a government official on the board... except that could be a nightmare in so many ways... but you could REQUIRE full accounting of everything that transpires so accountability is possible when they get caught. Some of which does happen if they don't manage to shred and wipe all the evidence; which so far they often miss bits but get enough that you can't beat their army of lawyers and bribed officials. This is a place where a blockchain style ledger would be quite useful. It would make it hard to remove evidence; they'd have to manage in secret to avoid any records... and that should be a crime. Also could stop all these golf informal meetings where a lot of bad things happen. I bet the world would be a better place if you just outlawed golf... (strip clubs are impossible to ban; just try running a black market golf club...) losing golf would be a small price to pay.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
As most people will notice, except regulators it seems, this is a scam to pay below the already pitiful minimum wage. Jobs that take 6 hours to learn should not be permitted to misuse apprenticeships. There is a place for white-collar apprenticeships but only for developing staff at a fair price.