National Apprenticeship Week – 2011

Today National Apprenticeship Week is launched with the aim to increase the understanding of apprenticeships for both employer and apprentices whilst highlighting the benefits such a scheme can bring.

The entire program this week can be found online (http://tinyurl.com/2g4ob3j) and have themed events for employers, apprentices, providers and stakeholders.

As part of the government’s involvement the business secretary, Vince Cable, has encouraged businesses to take on apprentices and take advantage of the £1.4bn investment in the schemes. The government also hopes to create 100,000 new apprenticeships as it sees this scheme as a way of progressing the future of the workforce.

The benefits for businesses can be substantial and after a period where apprenticeships had fallen out of fashion many firms are returning to them in order to build and train a skilled workforce.

This will also benefit those in society who want to retrain and gain key employable skills such as young people, where the national unemployment rate is at 20%, and those who need to make a career change.

The majority of the cost of apprentices’ training will be financed by the government whilst support for the classroom-based teaching is available from third party teaching providers.

If promoted well and encouraged correctly this scheme could be one method in reducing the level of unemployment whilst ensuring key skills are up-to-date and taught.