UK’s Next criticised over apprenticeship programme

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Dec 8, 2015

The British high-street chain Next has been accused of cutting £2.5 million off its wage bill by employing low-earning apprentices, according to Channel Four’s investigative programme Dispatches.

The retail giant saved £2.5 million by paying apprentices a minimum wage of £3.30 an hour, instead of the wage for normal workers aged over 21, which is £6.70 an hour.

Further, according to Dispatches, many Next apprentices were offered contracts of just 15 hours-a-week after finishing their own programmes.

Earlier this year Next’s apprentice scheme was also criticised by Ofsted, which issued a report that stated the retailer’s management, teaching and assessment of its apprentices was “inadequate”. The document found that support provided for apprentices was not satisfactory and that, as a result, too many apprentices did not remain on the programme to complete their qualification.

Next responded to the findings and recommendations, and when inspectors visited the company again in September they said there were “signs of improvement”.

Next, which made £800 million in profits this year, was given nearly £1.8 million of public funds in 2014 to train 30 hours-a-week- apprentices. According to Dispatches, retail apprenticeships have increased by 81% in the last five years, as retailers use it as a way to accredit low-level skills such as making coffee and cleaning floors.

In November Chancellor George Osborne announced a new apprenticeship levy of 0.5% on company payrolls to raise £3 billion a year and fund three million apprenticeships by 2020.