Changing the Lens on Apprenticeships

We need to increase the awareness of the value of the #apprenticeships for 18-year-olds who are thinking twice about #university , and it will also help the country plug the digital skills gap and potentially encourage the lost generation of over 50’s that left work during lockdown to go back to work.

However, to accelerate and grow the number of apprenticeships the government needs to reform the #apprenticeshiplevy that was introduced in April 2017 where employers with an annual wage bill of more than ￡3 million pay 0.5 per cent of payroll costs into a fund for training. The Co-op, one of the world’s largest mutuals, revealed more than ￡600 million, could have funded over 60,000 apprenticeships, was returned to the Treasury in 2022. This is due to the levy not being used by businesses because it is too complex and rigid. The process needs to be simplified and provide more support to encourage young people and smaller employers to use it.

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A New View on Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships were and may still be viewed as lowly paid schemes for manual workers who left school with no qualifications. Now major businesses offer apprenticeships in technology, science, engineering, and business leadership where an 18-year-old get paid a decent salary, get trained on the job and study for a qualification and even a degree. Times have changed and universities are demanding high costs fees and both students and parents are evaluating if the traditional route of university is required. For those that are unsure, can’t afford it or don’t want to be saddled with debt when they finish or want to get on the ladder straight away apprenticeships are the way forward.

Also, 16% of people that join an apprenticeship earn more money than the starter salary they would get if they got a job straight out of the University, and they are not lumbered with the debt. So, the return on investment is higher for some than the University trajectory and students benefit from life skills and being in the workplace and not in full time education enabling them to get ahead faster.

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Boosting the Economy

The Department of Education reports that 277,315 18 year olds in the UK were accepted by Universities and only 38,480 joined an apprenticeship scheme. We need to increase the awareness of kudos of apprenticeships schemes so more young adults join them to help boost the economy and to learn new skills that we urgently need in the workplace.

Apprenticeships in #technology can help the economy plug the digital skills gap which needs to be addressed urgently for the economy’s future. The digital economy contributes ￡400m to the UK each day, growing more quickly than the economy itself. According to new government figures the digital skills gap is estimated to cost the economy ￡63 billion a year.

Companies need to grow and nurture #techtalent teaching students the digital skills that are required in #telecoms , #unifiedcommunications , #AI , #machinelearning and #data analysis. There is a great shortage of these, and we need to close the gap.

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Apprenticeships are not just for the young

Apprenticeships are not just for school leavers and can be for new and existing employees of any age who want to re-train or upskill.

Since the pandemic hundreds of thousands of people have resigned from their jobs, lockdown made people re-evaluate their lives and this is known as the ‘Great Resignation’. Added to that nearly 400,000 of people over 50 have vanished from the work force which is having a detrimental effect on the economy. The government are planning to introduce a drive to get more older people back in the workplace to retrain with shorter apprenticeship programmes.

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Calling all Tech Apprentices

Worryingly it has recently been revealed that there has been a 34% decline in technology, engineering and manufacturing apprentices. Naturally this of grave concern considering the cost of the digital skills gap to the economy. Schools, parents, the government and businesses need to come together to educate students on technology being a choice for a career.

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Lack of Diversity

The tech industry is known for its lack of diversity and this has to change. Although recent efforts have been made and there has been a big diversity push in recent years, mthree’s research found that two-fifths (40%) of businesses currently struggle to recruit entry level tech employees from underrepresented groups.

Consequently, diversity in the sector is still far too low: the latest figures show that only 15% of tech workers are from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and just 19% of the tech workforce is female, compared with 49% of the total UK workforce.

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It’s Our Future

To accelerate apprenticeships in the workplace and particularly in tech there is a lot of work to do but we must address the digital skills gap, diversity issues and educate students that tech is an exciting, valuable and worth career to embark on. After all it’s our future and theirs!