Improved productivity and record investment in skills training: these are the key promises of the new apprenticeship levy, launched in April last year. The new levy system was designed to make it easier for companies to take on apprentices and saw the UK government set itself an admirable goal of hitting a target of three million new apprenticeships by 2020.
| Published: 25 September 2018
The benefits of apprenticeship programmes to both the employer and the apprentice are widely publicised and include access to skilled workers, greater retention of staff, provision of a different kind of more practical learning, and a valuable return on investment for the employer across both private and public sectors.
| Published: 14 July 2018
Apprenticeships will only be in a position to achieve core business goals if people across the whole of an organisation recognise their value. If employers manage to successfully implement apprenticeships – at all levels, across a range of teams, and amongst both new and existing staff – then employees will start to see how on-the-job training can be of huge benefit.
| Published: 5 May 2018
Britain is a global hub for technical innovation and creativity - and apprentices have long been a great way to nurture talent in almost any industry. Yet official figures highlighted a significant drop in the number of new apprentice sign-ups. This, combined with frequent reports in the UK suggests that companies may struggle to find the skilled workforce they need.
| Published: 11 April 2018
British businesses continue to look to apprenticeship schemes to build momentum ahead of the first anniversary of the Levy. Issues with strategic planning of company wide learning, staff engagement, development policy and confusion over legislation have caused a failure to maximise employer levy spend to date but Lally feels 2018 has already started to see a huge change in the market.
| Published: 7 April 2018
Many point to apprentices being tomorrow's top talent. Here is a guide to getting the next generation of workers on the path to a career in your organisation. For businesses, there has never been a better time to offer an apprenticeship scheme. Thanks to a new format introduced in 2017, there is a real drive to get young people into work, backed by substantial funding (more on that in a bit).
| Published: 1 April 2018
The study of 15 apprenticeships in emerging sectors, carried out by specialist recruitment company, Pareto Law, reveals a need for both soft skills and digital prowess in these emerging industries, and highlights the demand for further technological advancement across banking, telecommunications and science, among other sectors.
| Published: 17 March 2018
Bringing the apprenticeships programme to fruition has resembled the classic Laurel and Hardy feature The Music Box. The question is, not whether the piano will be delivered, but what occurs on the journey and, in what state it will be in when it arrives. We’re more than halfway through the timeframe that then PM David Cameron set out in August 2015 and, so far, the piano has taken some knocks.
| Published: 14 March 2018
Brexit has, understandably, dominated the political agenda since the referendum and the government has now begun to focus its efforts on negotiating an acceptable exit strategy. But while all eyes have been on Europe, a concerning trend has been emerging much closer to home.
| Published: 8 March 2018
The first official apprenticeships statistics since the launch of the Apprenticeship Levy, released back in October 2017, made for dismal reading. According to figures from DfE, total apprenticeship starts for May, June and July 2017 fell by 61 percent compared to the same period in the previous year.
| Published: 15 January 2018
