This week is National Apprenticeships Week, an annual event where apprenticeships are celebrated as a brilliant route for people to gain new professional knowledge and skills.
The theme for this year is "Skills for Life" - highlighting that apprenticeships are available at any time of life, and that anyone can undertake an apprenticeship where they have a need for gaining new career development skills and qualifications.
It's twelve years since Warwickshire County Council launched its apprenticeship scheme, with eleven apprentices recruited back in September 2012. Since then the Council has recruited 362 apprentices, with 67 currently working in services across the organisation.
When the Council first launched its scheme the landscape for apprenticeships was very different, they were very much focused as career start opportunities for younger people entering work for the first time.
Nowadays, apprenticeships certainly still are that route into employment for career starters, but not exclusively so - they can be a career change opportunity, and recruited apprentices can be any age. Existing employees can also access apprenticeship training to further develop their careers and boost their skills for life, at any age and any point of their career.
Apprenticeship training at the County Council is fully funded through its corporate Apprenticeship Levy. Since the levy was introduced in 2017, apprenticeships have also become available as funded training programmes for existing council employees, and there has been an explosion of new programmes created to support the development of new skills in pretty much any job role.
Councillor Yousef Dahmash, Portfolio Holder for Customer and Transformation said:
“National Apprenticeships Week is a brilliant opportunity to celebrate the role our apprentices play in making Warwickshire the best it can be, and the positive contribution they make... Not only is it an opportunity for us to shout about how great it is to work here, it is also provides us with a chance to shine a light on the people who have come through the scheme and who have built their careers with us”
“It is also a great time to remind people that they can become an apprentice at any time in their lives. Whether it is a change of career they are after, or they want to enhance skills they have already gained, an apprenticeship can be a fantastic path to take”.
Find out more about the apprenticeship offer at Warwickshire County Council https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/apprenticeships