Apprentices could be exploited due to lack of scrutiny, says

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Apprentices could be exploited due to lack of scrutiny, says Royal Mail manager

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Publicly-funded apprenticeship schemes are not being scrutinised on a regular basis and it could lead to youngsters being exploited, a Royal Mail HR manager has claimed.

The manager told People Management that as companies try to save money in the recession, there is scope for them to overload their apprentices with work that fully-trained staff should be doing.

Cheryl Simons, an accreditation, funding and advisory manager, said that because Ofsted inspections are only carried out once every four years, there is a large window for potential abuse to take place.

"It won't happen with us, because we take our apprentices on full time and they're not given a reduced wage. But it certainly could be an issue out there in the wider world", Ms Simons said.

Ms Simons was scathing of the way Ofsted operates, saying it does not monitor where money is spent, and companies can easily hide things from them. She added: "A lot of it [money] is given to private training providers, which is where a lot of the problems really lie."

The criticism, Ms Simons says, is because she believes the government has greater responsibility as there is taxpayers' money involved.

The news comes as serious doubts are raised about the future government funding of skills and apprenticeship training programmes following the slashing of the budget for the Learning and Skills Council's redevelopment programme earlier in the year.