National Apprenticeship Week
It’s National Apprentice Week on 5 – 9 March 2018
Perceptions of apprenticeships often lead individuals to think about traditional craft careers in areas such as joinery, plumbing and electrical work. However, today the Modern Apprenticeship has evolved to offer over 80 different areas of skills development to suit the modern diverse business environment, from Construction to Finance; Active leisure, learning and wellbeing to Business and Administration; Customer Service to Childcare.
Skills Development Scotland’s target for 2017 was to achieve 26,000 young people working towards a Modern Apprenticeship which moves towards the Scottish Government’s commitment to 30,000 Modern Apprenticeship starts by 2020.
So what’s happening in Moray…
• As of 29 December 2017 there were 643 apprentices in training.
• The Modern Apprenticeship achievement rate in Moray is 83%.
• The 2017 Annual Participation Measure showed that of the 4,085 16-19 year olds in Moray 89.8% were in education, employment or training and personal development.
As a major employer in Moray we have an important role to play in supporting the achievement of these targets and particularly in supporting our young people as they move into employment. Currently we employ 17 young apprentices including both the traditional craft apprenticeships and modern apprenticeships. And we plan to do more.
Ongoing work is underway to develop our corporate approach which will see an increase in the number of apprentices that we employ. This will involve identifying further frameworks that the council can support and that naturally align with our services. From there we will work with services to appoint to vacancies and support people in these training roles. Additionally we will be assessing opportunities for Graduate Apprentices too, although currently there are limited frameworks available for this level of apprentice – these posts may offer career opportunities for existing staff. So watch out for more news on our progress.
Further information on apprenticeships, frameworks and general information can be found on the Skill Development Scotland website.