A RECRUITMENT agency boss has blasted Essex County Council's much-lauded apprenticeship scheme for apparently discriminating against British white people.
Ben Drain, managing director of Get Me Group, learnt of the policy as he looked into the authority's £2,500 grant for employers taking on an apprentice.
He said: "I think it is outrageous that our own council is discriminating against young white British people – and encouraging employers to positively discriminate against them.
"Essex County Council will provide the wage subsidy for every apprentice taken on if they are of non-white British ethnicity.
"If they are of white British ethnicity, then they have to meet other eligibility criteria that other ethnicities do not."
Since 2009, the Essex County Council-managed Essex Apprenticeship programme has supported 1,556 employers to recruit 2,745 young people into an apprenticeship.
The number of young people unemployed, or not in training or education, has gone from 2,531 or 6.2 per cent since January 2011 to 2,237 or 4.7 per cent at the end of January this year.
Mr Drain, who employs apprentices at his firm in Witham, continued: "I've been involved in apprenticeships for seven years, we go out and talk to employers and fund training opportunities.
"We've probably placed a hundred 16 to 25-year-olds into apprenticeships this year, and I employ three myself.
"The £2,500 wage subsidy is only for certain sectors, which is fine, but if they want to encourage apprenticeships it should be open to everyone.
"White British young people are finding it tough, so why is the council paying and encouraging employers to positively discriminate?"
But Essex County Council says the Diversity in Apprenticeship (DIA) initiative is a national programme funded by the National Apprenticeship Service, and therefore out of their hands.
Deputy leader, Cllr Kevin Bentley, said: "It offers funding to employers to support groups who are underrepresented in the workplace.
"Essex County Council runs the DIA programme alongside a range of other extremely successful apprenticeship programmes open to all young people aged 16 to 24, irrespective of their differences and background.
"It's absolutely vital that we help Essex businesses to recruit apprentices and support young people from all backgrounds into jobs, careers and learning."
