Apprenticeships - an opportunity wasted?

When you think about the term 'Apprenticeships', what does it bring to mind? It could well be an army of school leavers flooding into factories or other traditional industries like building or plumbing, to 'learn their trade'.

But Apprenticeships have changed. At the risk of being controversial, I recently stated in public that I think the actual word 'Apprentice' is in itself, limiting.

The introduction of the Apprenticeship levy in 2017 signalled a major reform that seems to have passed many businesses by. Those with a salary bill of more than ￡3m a year pay a levy which can be spent on Apprenticeship training not just for new, young recruits, but as deep and meaningful up-skill and re-skill training for existing staff, at all stages of their careers. At a time of huge economic change, the truth is that nearly everyone will need to be re-skilled in some way, shape or form, just to keep pace with the world.

Apprenticeships are an ideal opportunity to equip your people for change, creating a more engaged, effective and agile workforce. I've seen at first hand how an Apprenticeship programme can create, in a professional sense, a whole new lease of life, for people who have never had before had the opportunity to work on their own professional development. A particularly great example of this is the Senior Leaders Master's Degree Apprenticeship that we have developed with De Montfort University. Funded by the Apprenticeship levy, it's remarkable how it is putting a spring in the step of colleagues within Bauer Media and our external clients.

I'm not pretending for a moment that Apprentices are for the faint hearted. They are deep, meaningful training programmes that require discipline and commitment from the learner (I refuse to call them Apprentices), and guidance and support from line managers and employers.

But they work.