Apprenticeships

There's a lot of talk about apprenticeships out there. They're the sort of thing that sound like a great idea. You know, the sort of thing where a young lad or lass come in, maybe not brilliant at school, but keen, hard-working, practical. Join a company and get a trade.
So, I thought I'd take a look at some of the apprenticeships out there by typing in a postcode in Northamptonshire into the Apprenticeships website and seeing what came up.
So, here's the first 2 pages I got:-
Apprentice Nursery Assistant required to work in an Ofsted grade 1 (outstanding) day nursery in Hunsbury, Northampton. 
Main Duties: 
• Caring for children. Ensuring that children are safe and relating well to each other. 
• Being creative and helping to plan activities for the children. 
• Enabling play and participating in play. 
No, that's a job. You hire someone who is good with kids, spend a little time sorting out activities.
Apprentice Teaching Assistant
That's a government job.
Apprentice Mechanical Engineer (Fork Lift Truck Maintenance)
That's an apprenticeship - lots of training needed. Good.
Apprentice Barber
That's "trainee hairdresser", something we've always had jobs in. The job even prefers standard hairdressing qualifications.
Apprentice Nursery Assistant
No, job.
Apprentice Office Administrator
With duties like "Organising and Management of various production paperwork forms for the running of day to day business" that's just an office junior job. Nothing in the job suggesting something more skilled other than that.
Apprentice Machinist Engineer
Some machining, learning some welding. That's an apprenticeship. Good.
Childminding Apprenticeship
Again. Job.
Apprentice Pizza Chef
At Pizza Hut. You're going to be putting toppings on some shipped-in pizza dough. Something a child can do in 30 minutes.
Business Administration Apprentice
"Generally assisting the MD" "filing scanning and photocopying". That's another "office junior".
It's really dispiriting. These are nearly all low-paid jobs, and jobs that require little training investment, which was always the problem - employers wouldn't train people because they could leave and go elsewhere. And a grant of £1500 isn't going to incentivise more advanced apprenticeships. It's just another jobs scheme where you get some money and the government picks up some low-grade training.