Apprenticeships - Building a Brand

Stewart Segal ~ Apprenticeships - Building a Brand

The national and sector press continue to run stories criticising the Apprenticeship programme. The Guardian ran an article on Friday 9th December which repeats the theme presented by several other journalists. It is a rather simplistic view of Apprenticeships that suggest that long Apprenticeships are good and short Apprenticeships are bad, Apprenticeships for people over the age of 25 are bad, Apprenticeships in engineering and manufacturing are always higher quality than in the service sector and that Apprenticeships in large companies should not be supported. This view of the sector masks a complex market in which the credibility of Apprenticeships depends on many different factors.

It is not true that delivering Apprenticeships to people who are already in work and who might be over 25 reduces the number of Apprenticeships delivered those who most need it, which is young people starting in their first jobs. There is no shortage of support for these young people and the funding is not substitution. In fact many companies only take on young people if they get support for training for some of their more experienced staff. Stopping training for older people will not help our young people get the opportunities they need.

Similarly stopping training for larger employers will not make more SMEs take up the training that is available. In fact many large companies encourage their SME partners and suppliers to take up training. It is also important to build the credibility of the Apprenticeship brand by convincing large companies to make the commitment to national training standards. The Apprenticeship system already has higher funding for young people and for SMEs.  

Training providers like HIT training manage these differentials in funding to meet the needs of business as well as the government priorities. There are a set of complex rules but what is important is that HIT is able to offer a wide range of support for businesses to create development opportunities for the whole workforce. Companies need to develop all of their staff so it is important to retain a flexible approach to the funding support in order to maintain the value of the Apprenticeship brand.