Tesco CEO Ken Murphy has become the latest retail boss to urge for reform of the apprenticeship levy, terming the current scheme “restrictive”, “impractical” and “poorly designed”.
Writing in This Is Money, the chief executive said that school leavers need the most support “through all the turbulence of the last few years”.
“This is a societal issue that needs to be addressed through the combined effort of business and government – and retail plays a crucial role in that,” he said.
Murphy added that if reforms has been made when the industry first asked for them five years ago, “we would have recruited an additional 2,500 apprentices in Tesco alone”.
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“For scale, that is enough high-quality jobs to fully staff every Tesco store in Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt’s constituencies five-times over. It would also be a 50% increase to our overall apprenticeship programme,” he explained.
Tesco is now “pressing ahead, with or without government support”, he said.
The supermarket giant is launching a new Stronger Starts apprenticeship for 16 to 18-year-olds “aimed at students that are struggling and desperately need support”.
It marks Tesco’s first apprenticeship that requires no education qualifications and can give young people the equivalent of five GCSEs.
Murphy added that entry level apprenticeships typically raise pay by 20% within four years at the grocer.
However, he said that due to “poorly designed” government policy, Tesco can only offer 150 Stronger Starts apprenticeships.
“To date we have put in more than £100m to the apprenticeship levy but according to the government, our new Stronger Starts apprenticeship barely qualifies for levy funds,” Murphy said.
“In fact, since 2017 a combined £2bn of levy funds have been returned, unused, to Treasury and the number of entry level apprentices has plummeted.
“So, if government is serious about levelling up the country, helping people into skilled, secure employment and driving growth after two difficult years of inflation, then now is the time for a clear statement of intent.”
