Cameron slammed the scheme as part of his call for a training revolution. He claimed that 750,000 young people had been left without any learning prospects as a result of the government’s failings.
Cameron comments were made as the Tories launched Building Skills, Transforming Lives, a Green Paper outlining plans to set aside £775m to support apprentices of all ages and an additional £100m to help young people not in education, employment or training.
The £400m-per-year Train to Gain scheme, launched in August 2006, is a key ingredient of the government’s skills plans, but it has come under intense criticism since its launch.
Mark Snee, managing director of Technoprint UK, agreed with the criticism of Train to Gain.
He added: Whoever gets in needs to take a back seat and let companies decide how their own money is spent. Train to Gain was a waste of time and money at a time we are all facing spiralling costs.
Darrin Stevens, group training director at Polestar, added: Train to gain is a wonderful idea that has been managed incorrectly. It needs to change its ridiculous administration procedures and restrictive one-size-fits-all model. I will congratulate whichever government manages to fulfil these criteria when I see results.
However, John Denham, Unite universities and skills secretary, said the opposition party’s strategy falls short of Labour’s current plans to create 150,000 new apprenticeships.
He said: [The Conservatives] would waste millions of pounds on paying for apprenticeships that are already being completed.
They have copied our ideas for reducing bureaucracy, freeing up further education colleges and creating group training associations. The Conservative proposals will send apprenticeships back to the days when few people started them, fewer finished and public money was wasted.
Bernard Rutter, head of organising learning skills at Unite, urged companies to commit to training.
The last thing the UK needs is a change of government that will start to cut-back on funding learning and skills, he said.
Cameron calls for 'revolution' in 'archaic' skills provision
Train to Gain is "archaic" and should be reviewed, according to Conservative leader David Cameron in the latest attack on the controversial training programme.
