Charlie Mullins OBE

Sir,

For years entrepreneurs and employers have been banging on the door of Number 10, standing up for apprenticeships, and maybe, just maybe the message has got through (We have some of the best universities. We need world-class apprenticeships, Telegraph 17.7.23)

I have told numerous previous Prime Ministers of the need to not only invest in apprenticeships, but make it easier for both young people and employers to get involved in the scheme.

The red tape we faced when I owned Pimlico Plumbers prevented our scheme from doubling or even trebling in size as we worked to fill a gap in skills that has been widened by an obsession with academic learning at universities that peddle irrelevant degrees.

I hope that Rishi Sunak adopts a vocational training-style approach to this policy, by making things happen rather than being academic and just talking and writing about it.

His first step should be to call on business leaders with experience of what employers need from apprenticeships. As always, like all good tradesmen, I am ready and willing to get my hands dirty.

Yours faithfully,

Charlie Mullins OBE