Apprenticeships

In our experience, we’ve found that there is currently a gap when businesses are implementing apprenticeship programmes. Many rely on their training provider to recruit the apprentice and provide training, but will often struggle with:

• Job design – assigning activity appropriate to the level of the apprentice they are taking on
• Career development – mapping promotion paths and job roles to higher levels of apprenticeships
• Existing employees – how to make use of apprenticeships to provide training opportunities for current staff
• Business strategy – ensuring apprenticeship delivery is a lot more than a ‘nice to have’, and that it aligns with organisational goals and impacts business performance

To tackle these pitfalls, Paths and Progress has developed a comprehensive Apprenticeship Toolkit for employers. This can also be employed in conjunction with funding and qualification specialists, ensuring we cover every angle.

Our Apprenticeship Toolkit works by taking managers through a 360-degree review of their programmes and evaluating how these are embedded into their businesses. At the end of the process, they have a clearer path to follow in order to map their employees’ routes to growth.

April 2017 will see the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy and a wide range of changes to the apprenticeship landscape. These reforms aim to give employers more control and present a real chance for organisations to review how they are currently using apprenticeships.

We believe it offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to assess how they can use their pot of money more effectively to develop their employees, map skillsets to organisational goals, and make the most of the investments they make in their apprentices.