Jersey should value practical skills learned through apprenticeships to the same extent that academic courses are funded, a backbench politician has argued during the latest phase of the Budget debate this morning.

But Deputy Inna Gardiner, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, was unable to win sufficient support for her amendment to increase apprenticeship grants from the current rate of £1,852 per student to a maximum of £2,350.

The representative for St Helier North highlighted what she described as an unfair discrepancy between practical courses and those offered in educational settings such as Highlands College.

A-level students in government schools received the full cost of their courses – an average of £7,500 per year – funded by the taxpayer, she said, but those doing apprenticeships only received around a quarter of this sum.

“How can we say we value skills when our funding model tells apprentices they are worth a fraction of their academic peers?” she asked.

Deputy Gardiner said her intention was to bring apprenticeship grants in line with inflation from already existing and unspent funds, thereby supporting skills that were “much-needed” by the island.

Education Minister Rob Ward said that the apprenticeship grant had gone up by 15% and that it was important to provide a funding model that offered “clarity and stability” to employers.

Deputy Louise Doublet said that the ability to learn new skills as an apprentice was “life-changing” in some cases.

Two ministers – Deputies Kirsten Morel (Economic Development) and Elaine Millar (Treasury) noted that there had been a drop in the number of apprenticeships after a recent decision to remove the concept of trainee wages, but that this move had now been reversed.

Deputy David Warr said that the private sector was being effectively priced out of the market.

When it came to the vote, Deputy Gardiner’s amendment received nine votes and was defeated as 27 Members voted against, and a further five abstained.

As the debate moved into its fourth afternoon, a handful of the 35 amendments remained to be debated, including bids by the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel for the levels of funding within the Budget for Statistics Jersey and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner to be increased.

After the government was forced into climbdowns on its proposals for funding of the States police and the Environment Department on Tuesday, ministers had an easier ride the following day.

Several amendments fell away on Wednesday, including:

  • Speeding up the project for a new youth centre at Le Squez in St Clement, brought by Deputy Karen Wilson.
  • A higher hourly wage for those involved in providing nursery care to young Islanders (Deputy Inna Gardiner).
  • Abolishing the upper-earnings limit for social security contributions by employers and for the long-term care tax by employees (Deputy Tom Coles).

After the debate on amendments is complete, this week’s sitting – which is scheduled to move into “overtime” later today with a projected finishing time of 8pm – will move on to the main Budget debate.