Jobseeker’s Allowance

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

The self-employment figures are up strongly, but I need to point out that 60% of the gain in self-employment since 2010 has been in higher-skilled, managerial and professional jobs. It is interesting, when you look at real, living wages, that recent settlements have moved above inflation. There is a lot of variation within the pay settlements, and those in finance and business services have fallen by 0.7%, whereas the figure for retail is up by 2.2% and for manufacturing by 1.8%, running with or above inflation. Some of the suffering being seen in the City is something that I suspect the party opposite would not weep too hard for.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet (Lab)]

My Lords, can the noble Lord share with us how many of those jobs will lead to a strong career? For instance, how many lead to apprenticeships, and how many of those jobs give young people the aspirations to go on and make a career for themselves, rather than having a job for a very short time, perhaps without a permanent contract? There must be figures that show that. The importance that this and the previous Government put on apprenticeships must prevail for those permanent jobs to be gained.

[Lord Freud]

Apprenticeships are a cornerstone of this Government. Overall, we have had more than 1.1 million extra apprenticeships for youngsters since the election—a 40% increase on the equivalent period before the election, although I acknowledge that the previous Government were also pushing up the apprenticeship rate.

Women: Board Membership

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My noble friend is right that mentoring is an important aspect of encouraging more women to put themselves forward for these senior roles. That is an important issue that the Women’s Business Council, which I just referred to, is looking at. I hope that we will see some evidence to help us in its report due out later this year.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, I am sure that the noble Baroness is aware of the tremendous investigation and work carried out by my noble friend Lord Davies of Abersoch. One fundamental issue that has come through in that research is that role models start very young. Are the Government consciously working to ensure that young women going from schools into colleges and universities—that is, black women and those from ethnic minorities, but also all women—have that aspiration?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

We certainly need to make sure that all girls at school have high aspirations and that we encourage them to be ambitious. If the noble Baroness is around for the International Women’s Day debate that follows Questions, that is an area that I hope to expand on in my opening speech.

Unemployment: Young People

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

Yes, my Lords, my noble friend makes a most valuable point. We are expanding the New Enterprise Allowance to encourage more people—in particular young people—to start up businesses. While this includes financial aspects such as offering loans and financial support, it is the mentoring tied up with that process that helps the youngster, or indeed anyone taking part, in actually making that business a success.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

The noble Lord, Lord Bates, has referred to creating jobs, and having a job is really important. But would the Minister agree that having a career that includes an apprenticeship gives those very young people a substantial opportunity to grow? In the funding that is available there are opportunities for young people to go straight into apprenticeships, which creates an income, not only for themselves, but for UK plc going forward.

[Lord Freud]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Apprenticeships are a vital route for youngsters to get into the workforce. We have put a lot of extra funding into apprenticeships, and the numbers are going up pretty steeply.