Adult apprenticeships still face a branding issue, says Elizabeth Curran, Owner of Funding Solutions 4 Business.
Elizabeth Curran worked on the consultations that went out to employers before the apprenticeship levy was first introduced and has a wealth of experience with apprenticeships, working both with companies seeking apprentices and with the apprentices themselves. We interviewed Liz ahead of our 2019 Learning and Development Report for our in-depth article on apprenticeships, which will be released in February and will contain the full interview.
Adult apprenticeships are for all ages
"Everyone typically thinks of an apprentice as new, fresh out of school. What needs to be done really is around that brand when it comes to adult apprenticeships.
The apprenticeship levy and policy supports internal workforce development for employers - but employers still don’t understand with the word apprentice.
There’s a lot more to be done around the branding. People always think of apprentices as young, but the government designed the policy so that anyone from the ages of 16-65 that get training. Adult apprenticeships are for everyone.
The government definitely need to do more to help people understand it’s about learning new skills, regardless of your age."
But the apprenticeships brand as a whole need revisiting
"Branding is an issue for apprenticeships, absolutely. Whether they need to revisit the branding around the policy, or the training levy, I'm not sure. The message to employers should be to engage with apprenticeships at every stage of the recruitment and development process.
When you want to recruit, think about that job role and whether it could it be an apprenticeship.
If you want to do any staff development, think about whether an adult apprenticeship could fill this training need to help the individual move into new job roles.
Whether your company is a large, levy-paying organisation or a non-levy SME it’s about opening their eyes to the face that apprenticeships are basically just a training programme."
People assume that apprenticeships statistics = new jobs being created
People also tend to convolute apprenticeships with jobs. So for example when they say they've created 3million apprenticeships, people think that means 3million new jobs and that it's helping the unemployment rate.
In actual fact, apprenticeships are being used more and more to train internal staff. So whilst more people might be taking up apprenticeships, this doesn't directly correlate to how many jobs are being introduced into the market.
"3 million apprenticeships just means that there are 3 million programmes, so I can see how it might be deceiving."
About elizabeth curran
Elizabeth Curran worked on the consultations that went out to employers before the apprenticeship levy was first introduced and has a wealth of experience with apprenticeships, working both with companies seeking apprentices and with the apprentices themselves. We interviewed Liz ahead of our 2019 Learning and Development report on the topic of apprenticeships, which will be released in February and will contain the full interview.