MP hails employment schemes in Milton Keynes during visit for National Apprenticeship Week 2023

An MP has praised the employment schemes being launched in Milton Keynes during a visit for National Apprenticeship Week.

Yesterday (6 February), MP for North West Durham, Richard Holden, sang the praises of Milton Keynes on an official visit.

He works for the Department for Transport (DfT) and was keen to see John Lewis’ driving-related apprenticeships up close.

After visiting the massive retail site in the city, he spoke to The Citizen about why apprenticeships have grown in popularity in recent times, saying: “I think there are a few reasons for it.

"I think that people are starting to look at degrees in a different light. Particularly, when you can now do degree apprenticeships, high-level apprenticeships.

"People want to earn while they learn. Also, the labour market is a bit tighter than it was before, there are lots of vacancies in the sector. So, lots of businesses are seeing it as a good way to invest in your workforce.

"You’ll see from the stats that a lot of people that do apprenticeships in a business or sector, they will stay in that business.

"That is one of the reasons I am at John Lewis today, they really opened their apprenticeship sector and also their driver training academy to make sure they can promote people in their business as well.”

Mr Holden who works under the Secretary of State for Roads and Local Transport also discussed some of the challenges facing the Government in making Milton Keynes are more sustainable place to travel around.

He added: "There are challenges when we’re looking at local transport and transport infrastructure.

“We’re doing all sorts of different things at the moment. One of the things we wanted to do recently was to try and encourage people back onto the bus network, which has been a huge challenge since the pandemic.

"We’ve seen a real drop off in usage of [concessionary fares] and people using cars. We want people to see the bus as a cheaper option.

"You have a lot of commuters in Milton Keynes, but it’s the local transport side that is really import as well to people. That is why we introduced the £2 bus fare cap.”