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BCS hosts thought-leadership event for apprenticeship community

Delegates at a recent apprenticeship event organised by BCS Learning & Development Ltd, part of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, heard from Baroness Morgan of Huyton. She spoke about the select committee report ‘Make or Break - the UK’s digital future’ highlighting the importance of apprenticeships to the UK’s future.

BCS L&D Ltd has been named as one of the assessment organisations for the new digital apprenticeships and will be working with a number of training providers including 3aaa, QA, Firebrand, TDM, Arch, New Horizons, and Just IT, as well employers such as Capgemini.

Hosted by Tim Campbell MBE, the event brought together different organisations involved with digital apprenticeships to discuss the future and the impact that the Government’s agenda to create 3 million apprentices by 2020 could have.

Jon Buttriss, CEO of BCS L&D Ltd explains: “BCS is proud to have been selected as an assessment organisation for the digital apprenticeships; we are the only organisation solely dedicated to digital apprenticeships.

“As part of our approach to this, we want to facilitate the apprenticeship community, from training providers, employers, schools and universities to ensure that we are all working towards giving young people the right opportunities and skills that employers want. The discussion on the night identified some key themes that need to be addressed to make apprenticeships successful.”

Key themes raised through the debate included: the need to work closer with schools to inspire the next generation for a career in IT. Agreement that apprenticeships are a valuable route for thousands of people to find real jobs in technology. Support for SMEs who might want to take on apprenticeships and the need to debate whether we incentivise ATO’s and Employers to take women into IT Apprenticeships to ensure a 50:50 gender balance in the IT profession.

Jon concludes: “These are all key issues which we will be supporting. It was evident from our debate that we all want to see more and more people taking advantage of these digital apprenticeships and that the quality of these programmes will help the UK to change attitudes towards how we grow our future talent. This is vital if we are going to avoid the potential massive skills gap which is forecast in technology. They not only offer a great way to start out your career, but they also benefit organisations allowing them to recruit and grow their future IT teams and develop the talent they need for the future, in turn helping the UK to remain competitive.”

Ian Fairclough, Vice President, Global Delivery, Capgemini: “Apprenticeships enable young people to build the academic and practical skills they require for success in digital professions, but they also help create the talent that is vital in boosting the UK’s digital economy. Events such as these play an important role in ensuring that the standards of apprenticeships reflect the needs of the business community, as well as provide the new entrants with the necessary foundation for a productive and rewarding career in the tech sector.”

www.bcs.org/apprenticeships

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