June Apprenticeships News Update
Updates, news stories and general commentary about the FE sector on the ACE360 blog.
Dear Readers, welcome back to the ACE360 blog! We’re glad to have you back, and we have plenty to share in this issue of the FE Update.
Join us below for issue 3 of the FE update by ACE360. In today’s issue we share and comment on pieces about the Apprenticeship Levy, learner recognition, sizeable investments into the sector and the increasing calls from retailers to overhaul the ‘Not fit for purpose’ Apprenticeship sector.
Apprentice Of The Year Receives Recognition
Former Level 3 Business Administrator apprentice Alisha Shepherd is crowned with the title Apprentice of the year by the Association of Colleges (AoC)!
As part of this national event which celebrates exceptional students who go above and beyond, Alisha won £150 alongside her title.
Praised for her commitment to her studies and her colleagues in the teaching and learning department in which she was placed, Alisha excelled when providing vital support to the team alongside commitment to her studies throughout COVID.
We are so pleased to hear of the praise Alisha has received for balancing challenging study alongside her demanding role. We think this is a fantastic example of an Apprenticeship success story and believe it’s important that training providers and employers continue giving recognition to dedicated Apprentices! Got an Apprentice success story of your own? We want to hear from you! Get in touch today for inclusion in our next update!
Construction Industry To Benefit From £1 Million Investment Into New Training Facility
Work has begun at City College Plymouth to install a new and exciting facility designed to level up the delivery of construction subject training.
As part of this huge investment to help the College play its part in driving local economic growth through T-Level qualifications, money is being invested in a newly created Centre of Excellence to revolutionise training in an effort to mitigate the current skills gap in construction.
We at ACE360 have recently shared a few articles regarding skills gaps across sectors, so we welcome the news of money being being invested mindfully with the long-term success of the FE sector in mind.
Donation To Support Health And Education Apprentices
One of the largest security companies in the UK, G4S, which employs over 25,000 employees has committed to supporting several new Apprenticeships by gifting £100k of their unspent levy to Total People.
This £100,000 will support apprenticeships within the education, childcare, health and social care sectors which will be distributed to smaller business within these sectors to train staff into roles to address skills gaps.
We are glad to hear of this commitment from G4S which we believe demonstrates a fantastic way to make full use of levy funds available and making collaboration key to success.
Apprenticeship System ‘Not Fit For Purpose’ And Should Be Overhauled, Say Retailers’
According to a recent British Retail Consortium study, retailers estimate they could create an additional 1,000 new apprenticeships each if the current system is overhauled.
Speaking specifically of the Apprenticeship Levy, respondents stated that the system in its current form is ‘inadequate, inflexible, and does not support essential courses that are needed for a thriving retail industry’.
It’s interesting to hear the specific feelings towards Apprenticeships of this sector and we think their thoughts paint a really important picture – that there truly is no one size fits all method of making Apprenticeships work for each sector. We are interested to see how Apprenticeships continue to develop in the future, and whether the Government will respond to the increasing calls for a revised approach to the levy.
150 Years Before No More Young People Will End Up ‘NEET’
New report from Education think tank EDSK finds that current trends show it will take over 150 years before there are no longer any young people who are ‘not in education, employment or training’ – also referred to as NEET in England.
Reporting on the 12.6% NEET figure reported in 2021 which was just 0.4% lower than in 2016 and only 0.7% lower than in 2002, EDSK calls on Government to overhaul the system by investing more in supporting those at greater risk of disengaging from their education.
At ACE360 one of our favourite things about Apprenticeships is that it opens up pathways for those which EDSK define as at greater risk of disengaging from their education so would ideally like to have read of greater improvements for the % of NEET individuals. With the Government’s levelling up plan and our journey out of the pandemic, we hope to see an acceleration in improvements of NEET figures.
