The head of Ofsted reports that employers are offering poor-quality, low-level apprenticeships that are wasting public funds and abusing the trust placed in them by the Government and apprentices. Retail and care workers are particularly likely to be signed up for low-level apprenticeships that do not provide them with sufficient training, stretch them, or improve their skills. Instead, they are frequently being used as a means of accrediting existing low-level skills, like making coffee and cleaning floors. In a major report published this week, Ofsted concludes that many courses are failing to give learners the skills and knowledge employers are looking for, or add value to the economy. Some interviewed for the report were not even aware that they were on an apprenticeship programme. The Government intends to deliver three million apprenticeships over the next five years, but poor-quality courses have devalued the brand.