Schools, colleges and universities aren’t making enough young people “world-ready”, let alone “work-ready” and by the time they come to employers like me they may be hungry for a job, but they don’t often have the real skills they need to enter the workplace no matter how many bits of paper they bring after passing their exams.
It has been estimated that by 2022 there will be 2.5m job openings for engineers in the UK, but there are truly big business benefits of apprentices to help turn that prediction around for the better.
By Tracy Ewen
National Apprenticeship Week offers the chance for small business bosses to consider implementing a scheme of their own. But since the announcement of the National Living Wage and the apprenticeship levy, many SMEs are concerned about taking the leap.
As National Apprenticeship Week 2015 draws to an end, it’s been revealed that 23,000 new apprentice positions have been promised from employers including Microsoft, Halfords, the Royal Air Force, British Airways, Greene King, Boots and more.
During an apprenticeship event at the House of Commons, British Chambers of Commerce president Nora Senior revealed her career started in roof tiling and offered research from the BCC and also what its plans are to encourage companies to “safeguard” young talent and avoid extinction.
On the first day of National Apprenticeships Week, we spoke with Kate Awdry, PwC’s schools recruitment and development manager, to find out how the professional services firm is starting from the ground up and using apprentices to produce a pipeline of skilled workers.
This week I’m going to battle for apprenticeships – as the future of a number of industries, including my own, is at stake.
