INVESTING IN SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE

Skills Solutions, Greater Manchester’s largest provider of Apprenticeship training today welcomed a Parliamentary report on the future of Apprenticeships. The report, produced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee urged the Government to be more ambitious in promoting higher level Apprenticeships, and to challenge the perception that Apprenticeships are only for those unable to take the academic route.

The report also cautioned against reducing the quality of Apprenticeship training by pursuing ambitious growth targets. In particular, the report was critical of some short duration ‘Apprenticeship’ courses where retail employers had their existing staff trained while the training providers involved made excessive profits from Government funds.

Another recommendation of the report was that the Government should help smaller employers become involved in Apprenticeships by promoting the development of collaborative arrangements such as Group Training Associations, where the administrative burden is taken away from the employer.

Fiona Mellett, Chief Executive of Skills Solutions said:

“We strongly support the Select Committee recommendations. This summer, we ran a campaign to attract more Apprenticeship vacancies, and we generated over 800 new vacancies. These covered a huge range of positions, and included many higher level jobs, including management, marketing and professional occupations. More and more employers are realising that the Apprenticeship route can provide the skilled and motivated people they need to prosper.

“But maintaining the quality of Apprenticeship training is crucial to the success of the programme. Our recent Ofsted inspection highlighted our outstanding range of qualifications, and our effectiveness in meeting the needs of our learners and employers. As a not-for profit organisation, all our resources are re-invested into maintaining and improving the quality of our training.

“Most of our apprentices are with small businesses and we operate an Apprenticeships Training Agency which is designed to assist small businesses employ apprentices with the minimum of administration and risk”.

Skills Solutions, part of the Manchester Solutions Group, is the largest work based learning provider in Greater Manchester and one of the largest providers of Apprenticeships in the North West, working with over 1,200 employers directly generating Apprenticeship vacancies and looking after more than 2,500 learners on a variety of Apprenticeship programmes.

The full Select Committee report can be found at http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/

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