Apprenticeships - look beyond

The 13th annual National Apprenticeship Week is nearly over, it ends tomorrow 7 February 2020, but there's still time to take part and celebrate apprenticeships, apprentices, trainers and employers alike including many government bodies and departments, public sector bodies with 250 or more staff have to meet the government’s target for creating new apprenticeships. On average at least 2.3% of their staff must be new apprentice starts each year including organisations such as Natural England, Environment Agency and the Marine Management Organisation.

The benefits of apprenticeships to apprentice, employer and industry are becoming ever more apparent as this infographic shows, by the National Apprenticeship Service using data from the Learners and Apprentices Survey 2018 report.

This annual celebration of apprenticeships across England is a time to recognise and applaud apprenticeship success stories across the country.  This year the theme is ‘Look Beyond’ celebrating the diversity and value that apprenticeships bring to employers, apprentices and communities.

The National Apprenticeship Service, which co-ordinates the week, is:

• calling on young people to look beyond traditional routes into employment and explore the diversity of career options and industries now available to them through apprenticeships;
• calling on employers to look beyond traditional hiring routes and shout about the value they already see from diversifying their workforce by employing apprentices
• calling on parents and teachers to look beyond old preconceptions around apprenticeships, building understanding of the true value they bring, and sharing this with young people.

Apprenticeships are growing in number and value across the countryside sector with many people understanding that boots on the ground training is invaluable for many areas of  the industry. It is all well and good knowing how to build a dry stone wall or to survey an area of dense grassland in theory but until you actually start putting those stones together or trying to differentiate and count 15 species of very similar grass you don't know whether you'll be any good or can make a career out of it. This form of learning is increasingly recognised as an excellent grounding for many areas of the land based industries.

Find out what's currently available here.

CJS Weekly readers don't forget to look for the Apprenticeship and interns heading in your Friday edition.

Further reading:

• The National Apprenticeship Service (part of the Government's Skills Funding Agency), here.
• Apprenticeships, traineeships and internships - on theGovernment website.
  Finding an apprenticeship, internship or traineeship plus guidance for employers on offering training opportunities.
• National Apprenticeship Week (3rd – 9th February 2020) is the time to find out more about apprenticeships and the benefits that you can make the most of. To help, the Society for the Environment has been talking to people in the know about the new Environmental Practitioner Degree Apprenticeship to dig a little deeper! More here.
• In Depth feature written for CJS by North York Moors National Park, in 2016 but still relevant: Championing Apprenticeships, here. (An update from NYMNPA on their apprenticeships programme is due soon.)