:00:12. > :00:17.With one young person in five out of work, life for many is just one
:00:17. > :00:22.long rejection letter. I have applied for well over 250
:00:22. > :00:26.jobs. I've had six interviews in that time, but nothing has come up.
:00:26. > :00:31.The coalition government funded a rise in apprenticeships last year,
:00:31. > :00:34.but how many are real jobs? All the young people who thought that they
:00:34. > :00:39.were getting a decent apprenticeship, they have been let
:00:39. > :00:45.down. A waste of time. I should have stopped on at college or got a
:00:45. > :00:49.proper job. With millions in cash up for grabs
:00:49. > :00:52.with apprenticeships, we are asking if the young are getting value for
:00:52. > :00:57.money. Some apprenticeships are nothing
:00:57. > :01:03.short of money-making scams. What does that make you think
:01:03. > :01:07.looking at that? Forged documentation.
:01:07. > :01:17.And Schneider blow the whistle in private companies making a killing.
:01:17. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:34.What is behind all of this? Coins. Presents are back. Big time. From
:01:34. > :01:40.loir driving to shop work, there's been an explosion of the type and
:01:40. > :01:43.the number on offer in many parts of the UK. Last year more than
:01:43. > :01:48.450,000 apprenticeships were created in England alone. That is a
:01:48. > :01:52.huge rise on the year before, at a cost of more than �1 billion to the
:01:52. > :02:01.taxpayer, but tonight we investigate claims that for some,
:02:01. > :02:04.it's a licence to print money. Sam Healy was 18 when he became an
:02:04. > :02:10.present draper at Pinewood Studios. The training takes him through
:02:10. > :02:14.years. Most of it on the job with a skilled craftsman showing him the
:02:15. > :02:19.ropes and there is theory that Sam will learn at college. How an
:02:19. > :02:22.apprenticeship should be. I knew at school, I didn't used to
:02:22. > :02:27.go that much, so I think that an apprenticeship like this and
:02:27. > :02:32.learning on the job whilst getting paid is what I wanted to do while
:02:32. > :02:37.enjoying something that I am doing. Crucially, there is a real job
:02:37. > :02:42.attached. That's long been a requirement for aapprenticeships in
:02:42. > :02:52.Scotland and Wales, but not always in England or Northern Ireland. So
:02:52. > :02:57.when is an apprenticeship not really an apprenticeship? Declan
:02:57. > :03:02.Bellinger and his friends in Sussex did an IT apprenticeship, but it
:03:02. > :03:05.was classroom based there. Was not job. The teaching was done by a
:03:05. > :03:09.private training company, paid for with public money. The whole thing
:03:09. > :03:14.lasted six months. The apprenticeship you associate
:03:14. > :03:18.working at a company, that they might then take you on, but this
:03:18. > :03:23.was just training and a promise of a recruitment team at the end and
:03:23. > :03:28.they help us find a job. The company is called Zenos. Now
:03:28. > :03:33.owned by publisher Pearson, its training has been rated outstanding
:03:33. > :03:38.by education inspectors. Last year, Zenos had a Government contract
:03:38. > :03:43.worth �45 million. The company makes bold claims about its
:03:43. > :03:48.employment rates. Almost 90% of our learners get
:03:48. > :03:50.careers within the IT industry within a few months of leaving
:03:50. > :03:55.Zenos. Since their apprenticeship with
:03:55. > :03:58.Zenos ended 18 months ago, things have not been so Rosie for Declan
:03:58. > :04:04.and thinks class of 206789 How many people have gone on to
:04:04. > :04:09.work in IT? I think... A couple? Three or four.
:04:09. > :04:15.What are you three doing? unemployed, still. Looking for word.
:04:15. > :04:23.I am unemployed. I finished a two- week contract. That is all that I
:04:23. > :04:29.can get. That is freelance. I found a job through Gumtree on my on --
:04:29. > :04:33.own, it did not give a lot of money. What sort of job? Packing.
:04:33. > :04:38.What do they ask for when looking for a job? Experience.
:04:38. > :04:42.When you say Zenos, it was not really experience, it is just work,
:04:42. > :04:46.books. The Government decided some time
:04:46. > :04:52.ago to no longer fund apprenticeships in England without
:04:52. > :04:56.a proper job attached. It was supposed to end last April. The
:04:57. > :05:00.training was given until last April to find jobs for their
:05:00. > :05:05.apprenticeships, but that has proven a hard task for Zenos. Lisa
:05:05. > :05:10.Prudhoe's son was taken on by Zenos last September, long after the new
:05:10. > :05:13.rules were announced. He did 18 weeks in the classroom and supposed
:05:13. > :05:19.to start with an employer in January.
:05:19. > :05:24.He should do 21 weeks of work experience, as we speak now he is
:05:24. > :05:30.on week 11 and is waiting to get his workplacement.
:05:30. > :05:34.So he has not got an employer? He goes every day to the academy
:05:34. > :05:38.and waits. Lisa says about three- quarters of his classmates don't
:05:38. > :05:41.have an employer, even though it is part of the revamped Zenos
:05:41. > :05:45.apprenticeship. After the amount of time he has
:05:46. > :05:49.waited and nothing has come out of it, I don't think he will get a job.
:05:49. > :05:53.No. I think he will end up unemployed.
:05:53. > :05:57.How do you feel about that a as his mum? Terrible. I think it is
:05:58. > :06:02.terrible. I can't believe that they can get away with it.
:06:03. > :06:06.Last year, Zenos got more public money to train young
:06:06. > :06:11.apprenticeships than any other college or private training company.
:06:11. > :06:16.2,000 were taken on in September. Only half now have an employer.
:06:16. > :06:20.Does the Government think that is taxpayer's money well spent? I said
:06:20. > :06:25.that every apprenticeship has to be a job. I know that is tough.
:06:25. > :06:29.I know that some people think I'm relentless about apprenticeship.
:06:29. > :06:35.Surely it is a no brainer that they should be employed? That is why I
:06:35. > :06:38.insist that they are employed. That is not to say you can have good
:06:38. > :06:41.training and that maybe Zenos is providing that, but it is not an
:06:41. > :06:47.apprenticeship. I will not call it one.
:06:47. > :06:50.And it should not be funding to the same level? It should not be funded
:06:50. > :06:56.to the same level nor called an apprenticeship.
:06:56. > :07:01.The Government has not asked for money back, but has reduced the
:07:01. > :07:06.contract by Zenos by �1.8 million. Zenos did yot want to be
:07:06. > :07:10.interviewed, but we were told: Zenos acknowledges and regrets that
:07:10. > :07:13.there has been inconvenience to some learners during the
:07:13. > :07:19.transitional period, but the long- term commitment is to equip the
:07:19. > :07:23.young people with the skills and the ability that they need to with
:07:23. > :07:28.work in a highly competitive economy.
:07:28. > :07:32.Nick Linford is an expert in vocational training. He thinks that
:07:32. > :07:36.quality is being sacrificed in the race for numbers.
:07:36. > :07:41.We have seen record growth of apprenticeships. If some of the
:07:41. > :07:47.programmes don't have employers, some of them that are short cannot
:07:47. > :07:51.be taking place, there is a difficulty if the numbers can be
:07:51. > :07:54.met. Scratch under the surface, maybe we should not be calling them
:07:54. > :07:58.all present. When it comes to quantity, no-one
:07:58. > :08:02.does it like Morrisons. The supermarket chain employs more
:08:02. > :08:06.apprenticeships than any other company in the UK.
:08:06. > :08:11.ADVERTISEMENT: Let's get the party started.
:08:11. > :08:15.We've discovered that 52,000 Morrisons employees last year were
:08:15. > :08:19.on presents. That is nearly 40% of the whole workforce. It is about
:08:19. > :08:23.one in ten of the whole number of presents created across England
:08:23. > :08:29.last year. With the taxpayers' help it seems,
:08:29. > :08:33.that we are becoming a nation of shopkeepers apprenticeships. 40% of
:08:33. > :08:37.your staff are apprenticeships? made a huge commitment a few years
:08:37. > :08:41.ago. Is that right that 40% are
:08:41. > :08:46.apprentices? 40% are trying to get a basic qualification. People who
:08:46. > :08:50.don't leave school with a Cornwall fik often feel that they don't have
:08:50. > :08:55.access nor school the skilled jobs or the management positions as
:08:55. > :08:59.something that they can aspire to. Most are not school levers, though,
:08:59. > :09:03.two thirds are over 25. I was interested in doing butchery.
:09:03. > :09:08.Then the opportunity came up for the apprenticeship. I was 25 when I
:09:08. > :09:13.started the course. Obviously, the apprenticeship schemes are from
:09:13. > :09:16.school, but I was with Morrisons. Most of the company's
:09:16. > :09:21.apprenticeships are existing employees, so if new jobs are in
:09:21. > :09:29.the being created, should the taxpayer subsidise Morrisons's
:09:29. > :09:37.inhouse training? Charlie Mullins is not convinced. He began his
:09:37. > :09:42.working life as an apprentice. He takes pride in the skill involved.
:09:42. > :09:45.We have shelve stackers and apprenticed people. All I am doing
:09:45. > :09:49.is undervaluing the work that the apprentice does and seeing a
:09:49. > :09:54.loophole in the system claim money on it.
:09:54. > :09:58.In his plumbing business, it is done the old fashioned way. He
:09:58. > :10:03.employs 18 apprentices out of a staff of 200. The training involves
:10:03. > :10:07.a big commitment on both sides. There is a skilled worker being the
:10:07. > :10:11.mentor of people. It takes minimum of three years.
:10:11. > :10:18.They go to day release college and evening college and hopefully learn
:10:18. > :10:21.a bit on their own of an evening. At Morrisons, the retail
:10:21. > :10:27.apprenticeship last year took an average of six months to complete.
:10:27. > :10:31.Last week the scheme came under scrutiny from a government select
:10:31. > :10:35.committee, Elmfield Training, the private company that accredit's
:10:35. > :10:44.Morrisons apprentices, has a �37 million Government contract.
:10:44. > :10:48.I am Ged Syddall, the cefplt O of Elmfield. The Committee had
:10:48. > :10:53.question force the borne the �2 million profit that the company
:10:53. > :10:56.made in 2010. How much of the �12 million was
:10:56. > :11:03.Government money? It was all Government money.
:11:03. > :11:08.I think that much money made out of the business of your kind is a rip-
:11:08. > :11:14.The other than paid himself a dividend of nearly �3 million in
:11:14. > :11:18.2010, all taxpayers money. Yet when train train was inspected last year,
:11:18. > :11:21.the training for Morrisons was rated satisfactory.
:11:21. > :11:26.Actually, whether you look at the results delivered through the
:11:26. > :11:31.programme with a private provider, we are doing something that is
:11:31. > :11:36.actually exemplary in the terms of the qualifications... Satisfactory
:11:36. > :11:41.is what Ofsted said. That is satisfactory with regards
:11:41. > :11:45.to all of the qualifications. Stkpw if a principle awarded
:11:45. > :11:50.himself nearly �3 million of public money, people would have something
:11:50. > :11:54.to say about that? In terms of the qualifications numbers that they
:11:54. > :11:58.provide assessment on, to provide those numbers and those quality
:11:58. > :12:03.results is a lot better than most further education colleges in the
:12:03. > :12:06.In fact, more than two thirds of colleges are rated good or
:12:06. > :12:09.outstanding. Training that is merely satisfactory, like Elmfield
:12:09. > :12:13.Training is in the minority. With regard to the rating
:12:13. > :12:17.satisfactory, well, we know in the further education sector that is
:12:17. > :12:22.not good. That is three out of four. Four is the worst.
:12:22. > :12:25.Are you comfortable with a private company creaming off so much profit
:12:25. > :12:29.for providing a service that is merely satisfactory? I have said
:12:29. > :12:36.that I would look at every contract. I have said we will ensure value
:12:36. > :12:38.for money in the contracts k we are doing that. I said I would place in
:12:38. > :12:44.statutory standards. They will apply.
:12:44. > :12:47.So we might see an end to these types of apprenticeshipships?
:12:47. > :12:52.will see an end to the apprenticeships that are not up to
:12:52. > :12:55.the standards. At least these big companies are
:12:55. > :12:59.finally coming under the spotlight. We have discovered one growing
:12:59. > :13:03.group of training providers who seem to be operating under the
:13:03. > :13:07.inspection radar. The sub- contractors.
:13:07. > :13:11.As colleges struggle to find the capacity to cope with the growing
:13:11. > :13:15.demand of apprenticeship training, more of the work is sub-contracted
:13:15. > :13:18.out to private companies. There is little scrutiny as to how some of
:13:18. > :13:22.the companies are spending your money.
:13:22. > :13:28.It is young people like Kyle Emery who are counting the cost. Last
:13:28. > :13:32.summer he saw an ad for a painting and decorating apprenticeship. He
:13:32. > :13:40.was 18. He thought it sounded a great opportunity.
:13:40. > :13:44.They said interview on the phone. So, I got there, it was basically
:13:44. > :13:48.an induction day. I filled in a few forms, they said
:13:48. > :13:51.I was on the apprenticeship. That they would give me a ring before I
:13:51. > :13:57.started. So no interview? No, just sign up
:13:57. > :14:03.and you are on it. Nearly 300 apprentices in all were
:14:03. > :14:07.recruited for the first few weeks, they were then sent to this hotel.
:14:07. > :14:12.Kyle Emery expected to be decorating, but then began an
:14:12. > :14:18.apprenticeship in customer service. What did that involve, then?
:14:18. > :14:23.Filling out a work book ent. Dooing the answers, -- filling out a work
:14:23. > :14:26.book. Filling in the answers and sending it off to get your
:14:26. > :14:31.qualification. How long were you there? About a month.
:14:31. > :14:35.The rest of the time you were sitting at home? Yes.
:14:35. > :14:38.The Government funding for the presents came via Bournville
:14:38. > :14:40.College. They brought in Forward Thinking Training Solutions to
:14:40. > :14:44.deliver Kyle Emery's course. Forward Thinking Training Solutions
:14:44. > :14:50.are based here at this business park in Basingstoke. The company is
:14:50. > :14:55.only three years old, yet last year it was awarded a total of �277
:14:55. > :14:58.million in Government contracts to train apprentices.
:14:58. > :15:01.Forward Thinking Training Solutions's experience is in
:15:01. > :15:07.security training. Though, Bournville College contracted them
:15:07. > :15:10.for painting and decorating. Mark Harris was employed by Forward
:15:10. > :15:15.Thinking Training Solutions for eight weeks to train the
:15:15. > :15:19.apprentices and assess the work. They had been moved to the
:15:19. > :15:23.employer's training centre. Mark was shocked by the conditions.
:15:23. > :15:31.There was no hot or cold running water. No toilet facilities. There
:15:31. > :15:37.was no proper fire exits so to speak. They were chained and locked.
:15:37. > :15:43.The inside of the building there was two make-shift marquee tents to
:15:43. > :15:48.be used as temporary classrooms. How do you describe it? A shambles.
:15:48. > :15:53.And Kyle Emery says that the training was almost non-existent.
:15:53. > :15:58.It was cleaning out a old office block. It hardly had floor boards
:15:58. > :16:02.in. It was a death trap, really. We thought that was the prepare
:16:02. > :16:12.work for the painting. We tried to get it over and done with to start
:16:12. > :16:14.
:16:14. > :16:18.painting. Basically, it was this is a
:16:18. > :16:22.paintbrush, crack on. Nobody taught us what we were doing. A painting
:16:22. > :16:26.and decorating apprenticeship leading to an NVQ should take a
:16:26. > :16:32.year. Mark says that staff were under pressure to deliver it much
:16:32. > :16:39.faster than that, in 16 weeks. said that is not possible. You
:16:39. > :16:46.cannot do an NVQ in 16 weeks. It is totally impossible. What was the
:16:46. > :16:49.response? It has got to be done. It was as simple as that. Mark and
:16:49. > :16:53.another assessor raised their concerns with Forward Thinking but
:16:53. > :16:58.nothing happened. When the contractor, Bournville College,
:16:58. > :17:02.came to inspect the work place, he says they were kept away. We were
:17:02. > :17:05.taken to a different destination. We were taken out of the way while
:17:05. > :17:10.they came down in case we said something. While we were at this
:17:10. > :17:19.other venue, we were given a letter to save that our contract had been
:17:19. > :17:23.terminated. -- to say. Lyons Paint Squad denies that the working
:17:23. > :17:27.conditions were sub-standard. The company told us: The marquees were
:17:27. > :17:31.short-term measure and used prior to the completion of classroom
:17:31. > :17:38.facilities. These were perfectly adequate. Apprentices were involved
:17:38. > :17:40.in the cleaning out of the offices. Our hope was that giving the
:17:40. > :17:44.apprentices the opportunity to be involved in readying the
:17:44. > :17:49.surroundings in which they would study, would leave them with a
:17:49. > :17:55.sense of pride. But there was just his appointment in the end for Kyle
:17:55. > :17:59.and the other apprentices. Six months after they started, they
:17:59. > :18:04.paid them all off. How do you look back on the experience? A waste of
:18:04. > :18:08.time. I should have stayed at college or got a proper job, not an
:18:08. > :18:18.apprenticeship. Was it an apprenticeship, as you understand
:18:18. > :18:20.
:18:20. > :18:26.the word? The Way I See It, no. It was just cheap labour, really.
:18:26. > :18:30.Bournville College received money but they will not tell us how much
:18:30. > :18:34.or whether it has been paid back. We visited Forward Thinking's
:18:34. > :18:42.office and discovered the company has now got into administration. No
:18:42. > :18:46.answer. We wanted to put our allegations to the company, but
:18:46. > :18:50.they refused to take part in the programme. Colleges are legally
:18:50. > :18:53.responsible for ensuring their sub- contractors are up to scratch.
:18:53. > :18:57.Bournville College told Panorama that it did all the necessary
:18:57. > :19:01.checks before giving work to Forward Thinking. But we have
:19:01. > :19:05.discovered that another college had problems with the training provider
:19:05. > :19:09.the year previously. Wiltshire College told us that Forward
:19:10. > :19:14.Thinking had not met expectations on response times and deadlines.
:19:14. > :19:19.How robust art colleges when it comes to checking out sub-
:19:19. > :19:23.contractors? Unfortunately, and maybe it is a sign of pressure to
:19:23. > :19:28.hit targets and hit them quickly, maybe some of them cut corners and
:19:28. > :19:31.do not do due diligence. They don't ask for references and they get
:19:31. > :19:35.involved in relationships with partners without doing enough
:19:35. > :19:40.homework. When that happens, it tends to end in tears,
:19:40. > :19:43.unfortunately. And it is the learners that lose out. Learners at
:19:43. > :19:49.college at least have the reassurance that the training they
:19:49. > :19:52.is inspected by Ofsted every three years. The same rules do not apply
:19:52. > :19:57.to sub-contractors. Forward Thinking got work worth �2.7
:19:57. > :20:03.million last year without ever having been inspected. We took a
:20:03. > :20:05.closer look at other private training providers with Government
:20:05. > :20:09.contracts over half a million pounds and found that Forward
:20:09. > :20:14.Thinking is not an isolated example. We discovered that last year nearly
:20:14. > :20:19.a quarter of a billion pounds worth of taxpayers' money was given to
:20:19. > :20:23.sub-contractors who have never been inspected. The apprenticeship is
:20:23. > :20:29.the gold standard of vocational training. Rhenium funding rates for
:20:29. > :20:35.and they are the longest-running programmes. -- it is what you get
:20:35. > :20:39.the most funding rates fall. People are looking to put apprentices
:20:39. > :20:42.through a programme as quickly as they can without necessarily
:20:42. > :20:52.providing the highest quality programme. That is something that
:20:52. > :20:53.
:20:53. > :20:57.should be of concern to all of us, We have been told by insiders that
:20:57. > :21:02.the lack of checks could be leading to a much more serious misuse of
:21:02. > :21:06.public money, even fraud. JML Dolman is a private training
:21:06. > :21:11.company based in Wolverhampton. They have a Government contract to
:21:11. > :21:16.train apprentices and more than 70 were recruited last spring. Allan
:21:16. > :21:19.Middleton worked for the company until five weeks ago. His job was
:21:19. > :21:25.essentially quality control but at JML Dolman he soon found it was all
:21:25. > :21:28.about wanted to. As far as I am led to believe, the company had an
:21:28. > :21:33.agreement that for each apprentice on the completion of the award,
:21:33. > :21:39.they got �9,000 for each apprentice. This is where the pressure started,
:21:39. > :21:45.because you have to imagine at this stage that there are 80 students,
:21:45. > :21:50.from 70 to 80, now being trained by three people. So only three people
:21:50. > :21:57.within the company actually do it? They were at that stage but they
:21:57. > :22:02.took on another 80 as well. The 80 apprentices? Yes, last July. So you
:22:02. > :22:11.have got 160 apprentices and free people training? Then they took
:22:11. > :22:19.another 80 on. A third time? Yes. Do the maths. 200 apprentices at
:22:19. > :22:23.�9,000 each. That is almost �2 million of taxpayers' money. They
:22:23. > :22:29.were looking at it as a money- making scheme. If 200 apprentices
:22:29. > :22:33.are earning �9,000 every 26 weeks, that is a lot of money. And that
:22:33. > :22:37.was the length of the course, 26 weeks? That is what they were
:22:37. > :22:43.hoping it would be. That does not sound like an apprenticeship.
:22:43. > :22:46.not. Allan was asked to sign of students only so that there could
:22:46. > :22:51.be more apprentices that would release blocks of funding. He
:22:51. > :22:55.refused but became suspicious that it was happening anyway. He checked
:22:55. > :22:59.some files and found this. Look at this. If possible recall the
:22:59. > :23:03.apprenticed to complete the work. The award has been issued. This
:23:03. > :23:09.will need to be invalidated as incomplete. You are quite clear
:23:09. > :23:14.that he should not have passed? file was incomplete. Learning
:23:14. > :23:18.outcomes and units require the signature of an assessor. This was
:23:18. > :23:23.your view in February of this year, but it is saying that he was
:23:23. > :23:29.awarded the qualification. On the 1st October! This person has been
:23:29. > :23:34.qualified. And the certificate has been sent out. And that is not all.
:23:34. > :23:37.Before Allan left his job in February, he saw the records of two
:23:37. > :23:41.dozen apprentices. Many of these raised serious concerns of
:23:41. > :23:48.malpractice. Assessment plan is incomplete. There is nothing that
:23:48. > :23:53.can be applied for as achieved. Recall apprentice if possible. This
:23:53. > :23:58.apprentice would have to start from the beginning again. Seeing as this
:23:58. > :24:01.has been claimed as achieved, it needs to be invalidated. Nobody
:24:01. > :24:06.from JML Dolman wanted to be interviewed for this programme but
:24:06. > :24:11.the company told us: We absolutely and vigorously denied any intent to
:24:11. > :24:15.deceive or deliberately mislead. There were administrative failings
:24:15. > :24:18.that resulted in mistakes being made. As soon as the anomalies were
:24:18. > :24:23.identified, those responsible were dismissed and systems were put in
:24:23. > :24:27.place to make sure they could be no recurrence. No time has there been
:24:27. > :24:33.any hiatus in the provision of assessors. Mr Middleton is a
:24:33. > :24:35.disgruntled ex-employee and his claim that we are in receipt of
:24:35. > :24:40.�9,000 per apprentice is substantially inaccurate. With
:24:40. > :24:44.regard to those cases mentioned, none of those individuals ever
:24:44. > :24:47.received city vacation and we claimed no payment. The inspection
:24:47. > :24:51.undertaken by the external there if there has given us a clean bill of
:24:51. > :24:56.health. According to a current employee, at the problems still
:24:56. > :25:00.exist however. Remember Mark Harris? After he left Forward
:25:00. > :25:04.Thinking he got a job with JML Dolman. He is so unhappy with what
:25:04. > :25:08.is going on there that he has handed in his notice and taken the
:25:08. > :25:12.difficult decision to whistle blows. Have you been asked to sign of
:25:12. > :25:18.documents that you are not happy to sign? I have not because I have
:25:18. > :25:23.refused. I have been told to check files and put my name to them. I
:25:23. > :25:27.have not. And I will not. Not without knowing the person and
:25:27. > :25:37.seeing what they are capable of doing. What response to you get
:25:37. > :25:44.when you refuse? It has been put to one side but from what I have seen,
:25:44. > :25:51.they have already been signed off and been claimed for. What do you
:25:51. > :25:54.think of that? I think it is atrocious. We showed Mark some of
:25:54. > :25:58.the internal documents that we obtained and he pointed out an even
:25:58. > :26:05.more serious discrepancy. This young man, for example, it says
:26:05. > :26:10.that he has already been awarded two of his qualifications. Do you
:26:10. > :26:15.think he was ready for that? don't think so. I know for a fact
:26:15. > :26:21.that at that time there was no assessor there. If there was no
:26:21. > :26:27.assessor, no one to do the assessing of the work? How could he
:26:27. > :26:37.be side of? What does that make you think? Forged documentation.
:26:37. > :26:41.BBCi in off? That is pretty serious. Yes, it is. We have spoken to the
:26:41. > :26:46.assessor whose signature is on the document. He said he did not sign
:26:46. > :26:49.of any apprentices before he left JML Dolman last August. The rapid
:26:49. > :26:54.expansion in the number of apprenticeships has seen a huge
:26:54. > :26:58.rise in the number of sub- contractors. The Government says it
:26:58. > :27:02.has beefed up investigation and will have zero tolerance of fraud.
:27:02. > :27:06.The crackdown on sub-contractors that are not delivering will be
:27:06. > :27:09.relentless, I can assure you. have looked at two examples where
:27:09. > :27:16.hundreds of apprentices have been let down because of the sub-
:27:16. > :27:20.contractors. Clearly there has not been enough scrutiny of what they
:27:20. > :27:23.are doing in advance. We were not aware of this in terms of the
:27:23. > :27:27.overall picture. The character of sub-contracting is something I was
:27:27. > :27:31.sufficiently concerned about in order to insist that we tightened
:27:31. > :27:35.the screw. It is something that I have acted on but of course if you
:27:35. > :27:38.have got specific examples then we will take a close look at them.
:27:38. > :27:41.Behind the impressive numbers, there are many first-rate
:27:41. > :27:45.apprenticeships. But our investigation has found a
:27:45. > :27:49.significant number that are not as good as these. That angers those
:27:49. > :27:53.that want to give young people the best start to their working lives.
:27:53. > :28:00.All the time you are teaching them there apprenticeship and nurturing
:28:00. > :28:07.them into adults as well. It is what to do not get paid for
:28:07. > :28:13.sometimes that you do more of. -- you do not get paid for. It is a
:28:13. > :28:19.shame. I get quite passionate about this. These guys really deserve
:28:19. > :28:22.more than what we have been doing. The around the country, some young
:28:22. > :28:27.people have been left completely demoralised by their first taste of
:28:27. > :28:31.work. I thought painting and decorating was all right work to do
:28:31. > :28:34.and there would always be a job if you learnt to do it properly, then
:28:34. > :28:44.I could start my own business and get some money but it never
:28:44. > :28:46.
:28:47. > :28:50.happened. They all feel let down, disappointed. No hope. You look for
:28:50. > :28:55.jobs and you read the job description and it always says that
:28:55. > :29:02.experience is essential. How am I meant to get experience if I cannot
:29:02. > :29:06.get any work? The Government is under pressure to help create new