Article

British businesses back Brown's call for more Apprenticeships

DEPARTMENT FOR INNOVATION, UNIVERSITIES AND SKILLS News Release issued by The Government News Network on 25 February 2008

Leading employers have today committed to adding over 4,000 apprenticeship places. The announcement came as a kick-start to Apprenticeships Week and was welcomed by Skills Secretary John Denham.

Vodafone have committed to 2000 apprenticeship starts in 2008-09, Superdrug to 1,000, Sainsbury's to 400, Barchester Healthcare to 350 and Veolia to 250. These are all substantial increases on current numbers, while Phones4u have just set up their new programme for more than 200 by the end of this year.

Veolia and Dollond & Aitchison are among a group of employers working with Government to pilot 'over-training'. Already running successful apprenticeship programmes, these companies are offering to train a greater number of apprentices than their own organisation needs in order to build up the skills in their local area and supply chain. This is the beginning of an ambitious new programme.

The announcement builds on the Apprenticeships Review, published in January and launched by the Prime Minister. The Review outlined the Government's ambitious plans to grow and strengthen apprenticeships, and how those plans would be delivered to ensure apprenticeships become a mainstream option for young people and adults alike.

New research released today by the Learning and Skills Council shows the significant benefits apprenticeships programmes can bring to employers. 88 per cent believe apprenticeships lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce.

The Secretary of State welcomed today's commitment from Superdrug, Sainsbury's, Veolia, Vodafone and others to swell the numbers of apprentices in the coming year.

John Denham said:

"We must work closely with employers to make it easier for them to improve the range of high-quality apprenticeships on offer so that more young people and adults get the skills and qualifications they need.

"I'm delighted that these firms have shown such a commitment to their workforce. Britain will only succeed in the global skills race if we develop the skills of our people to the fullest possible extent and apprenticeships have a key role to play. "

Vodafone UK HR Director Matthew Brearley said:

"The continued expansion of Vodafone's apprenticeship programmes will further strengthen our recent commitment to the UK Government Skills Pledge. Apprenticeships offer a valuable learning and development opportunity and we actively encourage and support our people to gain the skills and qualifications that will support them throughout their careers."

Euan Sutherland, CEO of Superdrug, said:

"Superdrug is a people business and our success depends on the skills of our team members. They deserve the best training and development possible and we are committed to putting in place programmes that will enable all colleagues to have nationally recognised qualifications in key skills as well as vocational retail beauty skills. We have set up a dedicated NVQ and Apprenticeship team and are keen to further expand these programmes, giving employees the opportunity to gain additional qualifications in retail beauty skills as well as key skills."

Gary Tovey, Qualifications and Skills Manager, Sainsbury's, said:

"At Sainsbury's we made our Skills Pledge last year and committed to ensuring that all our colleagues could develop their skills. Apprenticeships are something special at Sainsbury's: we want to build on our successful pilot in bakery and give our colleagues apprenticeships in other specialist areas such as butchery and fish. By 2010 we want every store to have at least one craft apprentice. "

Henri Proglio, Veolia CEO, said:

"Veolia is the World's Leading Environmental Service group. In the UK it employs around 24,000 people. With more than 90% of these employees engaged in front-line jobs, we are convinced that we must invest in our people and give them opportunities for professional growth and development, while at the same time fostering initiative and individual responsibility. Apprenticeships are key to helping our Group achieve this goal. "

Andy Ferguson, Dollond & Aitchison CEO, said:

"We have developed an apprenticeship programme which is completely embedded in the business: we relate all of it back to customer service and the job that our people do. We don't restrict it to young people either: we value it so highly that we offer it to all our new staff, whatever age they are. We know that our customers see the results of this investment every day in our business."

Dr Terry Tucker, Director of Learning, Development and Hospitality at Barchester Healthcare, said:

"One of Barchester's strategic objectives is to employ outstanding people; one of the ways we ensure we do this is to offer great career pathways, often starting with apprenticeships - it works for us!"

Notes to editors:

1. This first-ever Apprenticeships Week, sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council, aims to celebrate the success of the Apprenticeships Programme and to raise awareness among employers on the vital role of Apprenticeships, and to encourage more employers to see the value of offering Apprenticeships to grow their business. For further information, see http://www.lsc.gov.uk.

2. "Over-training" was discussed in Chapter 5 'Boosting employer supply' of the Apprenticeship Review, published on 28 January 2008 and can be seen at: http: //www.dius.gov.uk/publications/world_class_apprenticeships.pdf.

3. Apprenticeship starts are measured in academic years, ie, from September to August. All current apprenticeship start figures are supplied by the Learning and Skills Council. The figures covering individual companies expanding their apprenticeship schemes in 2008/09 have been supplied by those companies.

4. The substantial growth of Vodafone's apprenticeships programme is already underway and Vodafone are now expanding their successful Customer Management programme. They will also offer high street store retail apprenticeships and have committed to a further 2000 apprentices starting in 2008/09.

5. Superdrug employs over 16,000 people; over 3,000 in the 16-18-year-old age range and approximately 4,500 in the 19-24 age bracket. Superdrug launched their apprenticeships programme in 2007 and have had 200 apprentices start to date. They have committed to a further 1,000 starting in 2008-09 with plans to bring apprenticeships into distribution centres as well as stores. Superdrug is also working with Skillsmart to develop a unique beauty apprenticeship programme which combines retail, beauty and selling skills.

6. Sainsbury's employ 150,000 staff. They are now recruiting their first 100 people to their apprenticeship programme, with another 65 by the end of 07/08 and 700 by 2010.

7. Veolia employ 44,000 staff and started apprenticeships this academic year. Most are in engineering in their Dalkia water treatment business at present. Veolia have had 78 apprentices start to date and have committed to 250 starting in 2008/09.

8. Phones4u have committed to 227 apprenticeship starts this year in retail and contact centre management. From March 2008, all new Phones4u staff will go through an induction programme accrediting them with a level-2 qualification at month four.

9. Barchester Healthcare currently run apprenticeships in health and social care, hospitality, customer service, learning and development, and administration and are committed to expand their apprenticeship programme to include building maintenance and laundry services. Barchester Healthcare employs over 13,500 staff and care for 10,000 people in 180 locations.

10. Dollond & Aitchison currently have 45 apprenticeship starts to date, expecting 110 starts to the end of 2007/08, and have committed to 150 starts for 2008-09.