National Apprenticeship Week

I see that National Apprentice Week is coming up next week. Worth penning a few thoughts as the topic of apprenticeships is high profile at present, and deservedly so in my view. I am particularly interested in the engineering and technology based apprenticeships, although much media attention is given over to non-STEM* associated apprenticeships and the shortcomings of these.

I have actually attended a number of meetings recently at which the topic of apprenticeships has been centre stage. This was true to some extent yesterday when I attended a STEM workshop for Further Education and 6^th form Colleges.

Ensuring the creation of new apprenticeship positions (rather than re-assignment of existing) is a key factor, as is translating these into sustainable jobs thereafter. As with so many of these matters relating to British industry, it’s getting at the middle sized and SME companies which is so important as these make up the vast majority of the companies and hopefully the new jobs. Making it easy for these companies to create new roles and to access young talent is part of this challenge. The government is certainly making the right moves, and I just hope that the money they are providing will enable this to become a sustainable initiative.

A key role in all this is raising awareness amongst young people and their parents. Not only have vocational routes had bad press, but there is much confusion amongst the plethora of providers and qualifications, and indeed career opportunities, not to mention schools.

So that’s where the STEM community comes in, EDT included. We need to make young people aware of the opportunities via apprenticeships, and in particular the exciting future in engineering and technology where we have a major shortage of technician apprentices to support advanced manufacturing and other equivalent sectors. Pre-apprenticeship awareness and employability skills development are key requirements to ensure the creation of a talent pipeline.

During National Apprenticeship Week, I am delighted to note that EDT has a number of Go4SET and First Edition activities taking place across the UK, several of which will involve apprentices as mentors and role models, a practice that I am pleased to say, is increasing.

The National Apprenticeship Week website can be found here: http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/Awards/Apprenticeship-Week-2012.aspx

*STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics