To mark National Apprenticeship Week 2015 this week, the National Apprenticeships Service has relaunched its pledgeometer**, allowing employers to pledge apprentice job vacancies. Employers can include any apprentices they intend to recruit up to 31st January 2016 within their pledge.
Hilary Laing, Cambridge Network's COO, said: "Our event, 'The modern take on talent' - held in conjunction with the Skills Funding Agency and QA Apprenticeships and supported by Tech Partnership - aimed to demonstrate the benefits we know apprentices can bring to even the smallest business, with some informative and inspirational talks from David Keeling of Bango and Linda Millett from Takeda. We were delighted to host over 60 of our members, who all seemed very enthusiastic about what they were hearing and very keen on the apprenticeship model.
"Now we want to galvanise Network members into action and maximise the real energy and appetite we found last night, and our Recruitment Gateway team is happy to follow up with anyone who is interested and help them take the next steps."
During National Apprenticeship Week, Cambridge MP Julian Huppert has today echoed the call for more apprenticeships, particularly in science, for the city’s young people as Cambridge prepares to mark its 5,000th apprentice and the country celebrates its two millionth.
Julian, who worked as a scientist before taking his seat in Westminster, has urged employers to come forward and offer training positions as the number in science is falling behind other fields.
More apprenticeships are also needed in IT as vacancies generally in the city increased by more than 200 in the last year.
In the past 12 months Cambridge Regional College received 4,407 applications for apprenticeships compared to 1,068 in the previous year. And in the last 12 months it accepted 514 vacancies compared to 295 in the previous 12 months.
Julian said: “The apprenticeship programme has been a phenomenal success in Cambridge and across the country generally and we are seeing more and more young people and employers benefiting.
“But I would like to see more young people given opportunities, particularly in the fields of science and IT. We need these skills for the future and the apprenticeship programme is an excellent way for young people to learn while getting paid. And for the employers the apprenticeship programme offers a member of staff they can train to meet their company’s particular needs.
“I would urge all those businesses that have not considered supporting the apprenticeship programme to find out more about how it could help them and how they could help give young people that crucial first step on the job ladder.”
Cambridge Regional College, which runs the apprenticeship programmes in the city, is about to welcome its 5,000th apprentice with 114 apprenticeship vacancies on its books at present.
Recently Julian and Cambridge Regional College hosted a visit by the government’s Apprenticeship Ambassador to Business, Gordon Birtwistle who met some of the catering and engineering apprentices training at the college.
Angela Hughes, head of apprenticeship programmes at Cambridge Regional College said: “We’ve seen a huge growth in the number of applicants for apprenticeships at CRC and great support from businesses offering openings to young people. But we would like to encourage more employers in the science and IT sectors in Cambridge to offer apprenticeships for the growing number of applicants keen to join the industry.
“We’re very pleased with Julian Huppert’s continuing support for apprenticeships.”
**On Friday (March 13th), the final day of National Apprenticeship Week 2015, the National Apprenticeship Service will publish a list of all employers who have made a pledge, and celebrate the overall number of pledges in their PR. If an employer does not wish to be listed, or included in any of the associated PR, they will be able to specify this on the pledgeometer form.