Almost 200 employers and key figures – including the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Sajid Javid MP and the Prime Minister’s Apprenticeship Advisor, Nadhim Zahawi MP – gathered at the iconic Shard building in London, to showcase their commitment to apprenticeships and traineeships, and mark the start of National Apprenticeship Week 2016.
The event, ‘Rise to the Top’, organised by the National Apprenticeship Service, to showcase how individuals and businesses can achieve their ambitions of ‘rising to the top’ through apprenticeships, saw employers from various sectors pledge to recruit a combined total of 19,156 further apprentices. Greene King pledged to recruit 10,000 more apprentices; Starbucks 1,000; BT 700; and Deloitte 200, to name a few. As well as pledges, there were also commitments from employers to grow their apprenticeship programme – by offering higher and degree level apprenticeships and expanding the programme to other departments within their business.
Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, said:
“I hope National Apprenticeship Week will inspire many more businesses across the country to commit to taking on an apprentice. Apprenticeships don’t just offer life changing opportunities to our young people, they also deliver for the bottom line. We are committed to 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 because apprenticeships are good for Britain.”
With the spotlight on progression and opportunity as a way to showcase the rich and diverse opportunities apprenticeships offer, Nadhim Zahawi MP speaking at the event, celebrated five companies – Starbucks, Prezzo, Fortnum and Mason, Deloitte and Addleshaw Goddard – thanking them for their continued commitment to the programme. Mr. Zahawi also handed an Olympic-style torch, currently touring businesses across the South East to Carol Muldoon, Vice President for Partners Resources for EMEA at Starbucks. The torch, engineered and designed by apprentices, represents the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next.
Carol Muldoon, Vice President for Partner Resources at Starbucks said:
“We are really proud of our apprentices – they have really inspired many partners and leaders in our business and we have grown our offer because of them. With this expansion we want to be an employer of choice for apprenticeships and youth opportunity. We aim to offer more than 20 different Apprenticeship Frameworks, supporting another 1,000 young people into our business by 2020.”
The pledges come as new figures from the Skills Funding Agency show businesses of all sizes place apprentices at the heart of their plans to rise to the top and rank hiring the right staff as the most important factor in helping them grow.
The research shows that eight in ten managers believe apprentices are vital to their organisation’s expansion plans and that two thirds (61%) of managers in growing firms felt that hiring the right staff or having employees with the right skills was the most important factor in realising the company’s ambitions.
Official figures show that in 2014/15 there were almost half a million apprenticeship starts with higher apprenticeships showing the most rapid growth. Data shows there was an increase of 115% in the number of higher apprenticeship starts compared with the previous year.
Throughout the Week, employers of all sizes will be coming together to showcase how apprenticeships help them #RiseToTheTop of their industry.
Follow @Apprenticeships, @TraineeshipsGov and #NAW2016 for all the latest news, pictures and videos.
For more information about National Apprenticeship Week 2016 click here