06/03/2017 Inside Out East

How do we ensure apprenticeships offer the best training the next

generation? We hear just how frustrating it can be. I just felt

used for cheap labour, really. Former undercover police officer

goes back to the scene of his biggest in Northampton. One day they

were very paranoid about me and made me stripped naked at gunpoint. And

Milton Keynes might have the answer to pollution, a future with electric

cars. Look at me in my electric car! It's quite quick! Revealing the

stories that matter close to the home.

As more and more young people are encouraged to apprenticeships, we

look at the pitfalls and the training they receive.

The government's got a vision for the future of education -

it wants apprenticeships to rival university as THE route to take.

My dream is to be at a dinner and some people around the table,

one person says I went to Oxford or Cambridge, and somebody

says oh that's nice, and the other person says I did

an apprenticeship in robotics or I did an apprenticeship

in plumbing and everybody goes wow, that's incredible.

I want to speak to teenagers themselves to find

I just felt a bit used for cheap labour really rather than me getting

Kyle from Peterborough is 16 and was keen to do an apprenticeship.

An apprenticeship should combine practical work

in a job with studying towards a qualification.

He says he started working for an electrical company

on the understanding they'd train him as an apprentice.

Some days I'd go out with a trained electrician in a van and some days

I'd just turn up expecting to go out and they'd tell me the person

Some days they just said don't bother coming in and sent me home

some days because of the lack of materials they hadn't

It was frustrating when he'd paid the bus fare to get to work.

As time went on his employer didn't sign on the dotted line

The person that was employing me said that they were sorting

a contract out, it just kept it on and on and on and just

yet he says he was being paid the apprentice rate.

I was on ?3.30 per hour, which is an apprenticeships wage normally.

If he wasn't in a real apprenticeship he should have

But there is now protection for apprentices.

It has recently become law that employers can't use

the term apprenticeship, if it's not a genuine position.

The government is trying to expand the number of apprenticeships.

But what guarantee is there that more won't end up feeling

From April big businesses will be made to pay a tax

They can claim some of this back if they take on an apprentice.

But if it works, is the apprenticeship system really

This mother wants to remain anonymous, because she's worried

Her son's on his third apprenticeship which is going OK,

but the first two have knocked his confidence for six.

As a parent, when you see it time and time again,

and you see the youngster getting really, just the confidence levels

are going lower and lower and lower, and they are getting to the point,

what am I doing wrong, what is wrong with me,

you then get very frustrated as a parent because you want your

child to be successful and you want to help them but you're

up against a system that isn't working.

She believes there's a fundamental problem with scrutiny.

What oversight are they having on the employers?

How are they properly looking at what our youngsters

are developing into and what skills they are learning?

Alex from Northampton is 18 and an engineering apprentice

at a company manufacturing engines and electronics for cars

He turned down two university offers to take this apprenticeship.

Most people probably aren't back from uni at that point,

He goes to Northampton College one day a week on top of the work here.

It's from half past eight until 7 in the evening.

Are you confident that you will have a job at the end

As long as I finish my apprenticeship I have

There are other people in my HNC class that don't get offered

But I believe if you've got the experience by the end of it,

other companies are going to want that experience

Are there enough jobs out there for all these apprentices

I'm heading to a hairdressers in Cambridge which has had a long

So Pierro, how many apprentices have you had here over the years.

Pierro was an apprentice himself once and he's trained many

We are going through difficult times, lots of taxation that small

businesses have to face, we're going through the Brexit,

everybody is cautious and most of the traders are just scared

to take on board somebody, which they don't even

In reality if I have to invest into an apprentice I'd rather pay

the difference and have somebody fully qualified.

So after years of taking on an apprentice, you're not anymore.

Fortunately for Piero, he won't have to pay

the apprenticeship tax in April as his company isn't big enough.

But do even the big businesses actually want

We had a focus group only last week with some of our members and those

that will be paying the tax, not one of those people

actually thought they would recoup all of the money.

So having paid the tax, many won't claim back the money

to train a new apprentice because they don't want one.

And is there a danger, that those that do just

There will always be business out there that see it as cheap labour

and with the levy being put in place there is a possibility that more

people will see that just purely to claim back the tax that they've

paid over as a means to an end for them so they aren't out of pocket.

I want to put all these concerns to Harlow MP

Well there will always be some who for whatever reason it

might not be for them, but more importantly

of those who complete, 90% and that's an amazing figure,

either get jobs or go and do additional education.

It's a bit dated, there are no figures for last year and it DOESN'T

mean they've ALL gone on to a job in their chosen field.

Does it just mean that they're not relying on mum

But he believes change IS on the cards.

We want to change behaviour, we want to create an apprentice

and skills nation, we want to give millions of young people the chance

to climb up the ladder of opportunity to get the skills,

the get the apprenticeships, to get the jobs they need for the future.

But there are some out there that have a really bad time,

we've spoken to people, they have felt like they have just

been used as cheap labour - inherently this system does have

It doesn't because look at the statistics, 90% get the jobs

or additional education they need afterwards.

Of course there will be some rotten apples in every barrel, that's just

the way things work, but the vast majority of apprentices

get a fantastic skill, they get the training and they get

But pretty bad luck for those one or two though?

Well, we're doing everything possible to ensure quality

The hope is that the apprenticeships tax is going to force proper

businesses to do apprenticeships professionally.

By 2020 we will have spent ?2.5 billion on apprenticeships.

We'll never have a perfect system but we're doing everything possible

to make sure apprentices get the quality and get

And despite his experience, Kyle would still like to do

For now he's enrolled at college full time but he knows what he'd do

Just make sure that you sign documents and just make sure

you feel like you can trust the company and the people that

are offering the apprenticeships, make sure it's legit, really.

If there is something you think we should be looking at in the

programme, you can get in touch on twitter or send me an e-mail.

Later, we are trying out electric cars in Milton Keynes. It doesn't

feel like it's on. My goodness! The breaks I could!

The idea of legalising or regulating illegal drugs is a radical one

and there is likely to be a resounding no from most people,

but a former undercover police officer believes this is the only

Inside Out goes on a journey with him to look at his

I used to work undercover which I did for about 14

years infiltrating some of Britain's biggest drug gangs.

I was behind some of the biggest raids in the country

When I worked here undercover in Northampton, there was already

an epidemic of heroin and crack cocaine - overdose deaths

I now realise that all of the work I did had no benefit whatsoever.

It didn't have any impact on the drug supply or the situation

I now campaign for drugs to be legalised in order to stop the power

of organised crime and to prevent drug users dying.

I'm returning to Northampton where I worked these street 12 years

To meet Dr Simon Tickle who has been treating addicts for years.

The last three years, drug deaths have climbed dramatically

there are now more drug deaths that road deaths, would you say that

I think it is very complex so I don't know whether policy

I think the problem that my patients found now is it is harder to get

into treatment sometimes than it used to be because people who have

got underlying psychiatric issues, underlying social and psychological

issues, they need a lot longer a lot of support and they will

While I am there he has an appointment to see Darren Jordan,

someone he has been helping for 10 years.

I get emotional really easily these days, you know.

And that can be triggers for me to go and use because I know it

will stop that, because it wraps you up in cotton wool, you know.

I started getting ill so I went and bought some heroin and ...

I went and bought some heroin and injected it in a vein in here.

I obviously missed and within five days my whole arm

In this part of the country over two years 71 users have died.

As you can see my hands are still swollen.

Patrol officers in Northampton deal with addicts on a daily basis

and the petty crime that goes with supporting a habit.

I wouldn't say it's got worse in the time I have been doing it

It seems to go round, the cycle goes round.

Where people commit crime to fund their drug habits they go

off the scene and new ones come along to replace it.

I believe we should regulate the control of all drugs to take

away the power from organised crime and to reduce the impact of drug use

crime, so what do you think could change the culture?

Organise crime distribute the drugs as you take out one drugs

gang their distribution network is taken over by another so we need

something imaginative to push things forward

to stop this revolving cycle, drug gangs supplying

and we on the streets on Northampton as foot patrol officers picking up

the people who are needing to commit crime in order

So one way or another something needs to change?

Petty crime is still rife but it's the drug gangs that operate

I was brought to Northampton to expose gangs and for that I had

I was buying drugs off many dealers, but the reason I was brought

to Northampton because there was a particular gang

called the Burger Bar Boys and they were coming from Birmingham

The heroin and crack cocaine supply in this town and this is happening

now, the organised crime groups in the cities have become more

monopolized and they spread their influence

They were doing it really viciously in Northampton, for instance just

here, just amongst these trees by the side of the park, one day

they were very paranoid about me and they made me strip naked

As it turned out they were right to be suspicious - as I busted them

in 2004, they each got nine years in prison.

Today is the first time that I've been back in Northampton

And I have found someone to talk to me who knows that gangs

are still using Northampton as an easy target.

He's spent 17 years behind bars and is now a reformed man.

I used to work undercover, I mean, I used to try and catch people

like you - in your opinion did that impact on the flow of drugs

does the flow of drugs ever get interrupted

No, it might get disturbed for a day but the next day it's back

People are coming from all over the place, from London

from Birmingham just to sell up here.

Because they see Northampton as an easy touch.

Legalise it, that way, players like myself won't be

Would you say that would end the violence?

Oh yes, most definitely, it would stop crime,

it would stop everything, knowing they could get their fix

from the chemist, like they get their top stop hurting.

This is my view but a lot of people don't agree with us and believe it

will just create another market for addiction.

I have sent people to prison for a total of 1000 years,

but the amount of time I have taken drugs off the streets in this

country add up to less than a day, and that's in the whole of the 14

In Northampton it was a mere two hours.

It's a revelation to me that this former dealer shares my views.

But my views aren't everyone's idea of the way forward.

Robin Burgess help addicts try and get off drugs in this centre.

We are not allowed to film his clients but Robin has

There are no pat answers - some things will improve things some

things will mitigate things, some things will be improved

but there is no panacea and no amount of counselling or treatment

We both agree that dealing with addiction is hard and addiction

is not going to go away with regulating drugs,

but he believes there will always be new drugs hitting the streets.

The nature of the drug market is that they will always find

something new and given the fact that we will never get

the total agreement worldwide for the total legalisation

The explosion of new drugs is because of the illicit

No it's because of demand, the problem is demand that

all we have to address in a sense we can always focus on the control

You could to a far greater degree and we can keep on noodling

about how we police but what we need to do is address the

It's been quite strange being back in Northampton, it's the first day

that I would have been back since the day of the bust, certainly

nothing seems to have changed, in fact I would say some things have

got a lot worse - the people involved the police

support workers are all working just as hard.

I would say the consensus of opinion is and I certainly believe

I've not got people there to love and care for....

And from my experience I believe there are better ways of dealing

I see a future where people like Darren are not left behind.

You can listen to a debate tomorrow morning on the radio. More on the

debate on BBC online. With more and more cars

hitting our roads every year, there's increasing pressure to look

for alternatives to our love affair Milton Keynes thinks it

might have the answer. With a quarter of a million people

living here, the roads around The population is predicted

to double in the next few year. To try to combat air pollution, it's

now become one of the first places to seriously commit

to electric cars. We've heard this sort of thing

before, but some people here really believe it could really catch

on this time. The city has received ?9 million

in government funding to slash vehicle emissions

and to promote electric cars. But in the real world just how

practical is it living You can't travel very far in one

without the battery running out of juice and where do you go

to charge them up? Now we've got a very special

volunteer to try out an electric car for us -

former world champion Gail, have you ever driven

an electric car before? Thus a off body count? That's a no!

Thank you for asking me. Any preconceived ideas about what it

might be like. No, I am at in this futuristic style driving, what I'm

looking forward to it is lots of spaces at the shopping centre

because that's where it is to be all the electric cars get to charge up.

I'm looking forward to getting smoke and getting the best parking spaces.

There is the key! Good luck! It doesn't feel like it's on. On my

goodness! The breaks are good. Here we go. I want so many people to see

me, I want to go around and say hey, look at me in my electric car! It's

telling me I've got 89 miles, if I drive at the speed, don't plan on

doing 89 miles ), just going to get used to it.

The car Gail is driving costs around ?18,000 and depending on the size

of the battery you buy, has a range of between

It can take up to 8 and a half hours to fully charge if you use

I'm on the dual carriageway, and I didn't expect it to be so quick! I

don't know why, I guess I thought it would be like a remote control car.

But it's really quick. Milton Keynes is one of four places

in the UK to get government funds The aim is to reduce harmful

emissions and also cut I've come to quiz the council's Head

of Transport Innovation. Can you see a point where people in

Milton Keynes will think, I will switch from this to electric? To

love is with the car and a power source may be secondary, we have

seen the growth in the output from manufacturers normally start this

programme, they were about 15 models available, there is now about 50 and

the scale and scope, the choice for the consumers is growing and I think

that will be appealing to all tastes in motoring.

The take up of people buying electric cars in this

country isn't that great, only a few thousand compared

to millions of cars, traditional style cars being driven,

There is a long way to go but results are showing that

by having this type of investment and thinking that

We've seen over the past 12 months a 200 per cent increase in electric

It is small numbers. But growth is happening.

Milton Keynes currently has more than 200 on street charging points

for electric vehicles and also the UK's largest number of rapid

chargers, so far more than 50 have been installed and there are plans

Our volunteer Gail Emms is ready to charge her car

So all the cables are kept in the boot. This is the one that I need.

This is brilliant. Watch this. And then it plugs in here!

The company which operate these charging points charge a monthly fee

of ?7.85; they also give you six months free usage.

You swipe a card to get the machines to work.

Intuitively you know where petrol stations. But with this you have to

think about where you're going to. Yes, but there are apps out there,

you can go on your phone and go, look, there is one here! It directs

you do as well. So there is no excuse, not like a petrol car, we

all love making it somewhere, that's not how it works, it's about topping

up all the time. So in a way you're supposed to top up while you're

doing your shopping, it's a different mindset rather than

All was going well for Gail until it was time to leave.

I can't get it out! It is flashing at me! I don't want to break it! You

can't drive it like this! I will pull you back home. Is there a

button inside there? Is it something to do with that? It takes a bit of

working out. It's not just private road

users that are being Milton Keynes has the country's

first wirelessly charged electric bus service and is pushing for more

of its 1,200 taxis to I've come for a ride

on an electric bus to speak to Professor Stephen Potter

from the Open University. Is it just for people

who live in Milton Keynes, urban areas where you've got

charging points or can people in the countryside also benefit

from having an electric vehicle? We've already got people living

the countryside commuting into Milton Keynes in electric

vehicles and they're able to do that because we've got the charging

points here at workplaces and at shops and around,

so yes, it does work The really difficult areas

are the old suburban areas where you don't have garages or easy

places at home to charge the vehicles, but round this area

it works quite well. Say everyone in Milton Keynes

decided overnight to change their vehicles to electric the next

day, how would we cope If you did that at that sort

of speed, you'd have real trouble, it would over tax the electricity

distribution system, but we've also been working

here in Milton Keynes on smart energy systems where you can have

more flexible systems that can cope with the demands

on electric vehicles. So for example we've had some

work done with ourselves at the Open University on how people

can charge their electric vehicles from their solar panels

on their house and that helps to stop any stress on the

electricity system as a whole. Gail has now had her electric car

for a couple of days. I don't want to give

it up, I really don't. It's quick, it's speedy,

I feel really smug about myself and the fact that you can just pull

up and there are all these It is a fantastic little car

and I don't want to give it up. So that's a thumbs up! We're back in

two weeks' time wherein Norfolk doctrine of Texas to Africa with the

latest weapon against poachers. Humans have been trying to do it and

we have failed. In the meat, get in touch with me on Twitter or an

e-mail. -- all in the meantime. Also, a contract to deliver health

care for older people in Cambridgeshire. And this 23-year-old

has severe autism but despite this has become a top ice skater and now

represent Britain in the Special Olympics. Back in two weeks.

I'm Riz Lateef with your 90 second update.

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