We were delighted to host a round table discussion at the beginning of December with Midlands Business Insider on the provision of training and apprenticeships to people across the Midlands. We discussed a number of topics, such as, about how do we attract more students into apprenticeships and whether we are selling them in the right way. Getting employers on board doesn’t seem to be an issue, what has proved more of an issue is filling these positions. Henrietta Brealey, Birmingham Chamber, pointed out that in many cases schools were just not geared up for delivering the right advice.
In discussing what challenges employers might face in covering the costs and running of an apprenticeship there was a strong view that when the funding is moved from the providers to the employers it is going to become more difficult, especially for SMEs to manage, said Gary Woodman of Worcestershire LEP. It is likely that employers will be expected to pay for the training up front which could potentially be quite a large up front cost before the SME gets any money back.. For some SMEs this might be a step too far.
Read more on this fascinating topic from all 10 contributors at PDF.