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What do employers and learners think about apprenticeships? 13 May 2016

Whilst the vast majority of employers remain committed to apprenticeships there is still plenty to do to meet the government’s target of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020.

The 2015 annual BIS evaluation of apprenticeship employers reveals:

  • Satisfaction levels vary widely by framework with 65% of employers expressing concern at not being able to influence structure, content and delivery
  • Maths and English skills are deemed more important to employers offering “newer” frameworks such as Education than more “traditional” frameworks like Construction
  • Only 12% of employers have some knowledge of what is involved in the Trailblazer standards
  • Only 13% have had an apprentice proceed to a higher level qualification with the employer
  • Only 5% of employers engage in traineeships
  • Most employers feel that support and guidance is sufficient although this is not the case among small businesses.
The BIS survey does show the positive reasons why employers offer apprenticeships. These include: relevance to the needs of business; the convenience of the training provider handling recruitment; apprenticeships being the required form of training for the industry; and acquiring skilled staff.

The majority of apprenticeships on offer by employers in the survey were Business, Health and Retail with most employers providing only one broad framework.

Two-thirds of employers in the survey provided Level 2 apprenticeships (Construction being the largest sector) and 49% at Level 3 (mostly in Arts, Education and ICT).

Sitting alongside the employer survey, the learner evaluation strikes a more positive note with nearly all Level 2 and 3 apprentices feeling that they acquired or improved skills not only related to their desired area of work but also to other industries.  Career purposes, gaining a qualification and developing work-related skills were the 3 main motivating factors behind taking an apprenticeship.
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