You're all making too much of the 4% women comment. I doubt that is the driving force behind the scheme. A steering group is the driving force. I'll bet the politician was merely asked by BBC to comment and he picked the diversity red herring while ignoring the real importance of the apprenticeship. It would be illegal to discriminate against men in a City and Guilds Apprenticeship, so 96% of this money will be for blokes.
Do C&G Apprenticeships incur VAT? I doubt it because they should be treated the same as university degrees since C&G is not for profit. The more cadets on the scheme, the more funding there will be through the VAT savings. Give £1,000 to 217 cadets and let them all save VAT. If the VAT were £10K, then it is another £2.17 million wannabes don't have to fund. The VAT might be even more, but each FTO is different since not all training is UK based.
Last edited by Adios; 25th Jun 2012 at 06:40.