The Importance of the new Apprenticeship Roadmap

The road to a quality apprenticeship has been released as a new guide. Its goal is to assist employers in comprehending the stages required in providing high-quality, successful apprenticeships in their organisations.

The guide provides employers with links to information and tools at various phases of an apprenticeship journey to assist them in ensuring a quality experience for their apprentices, thereby increasing retention, achievement, and, as a result, the returns that apprentices provide. The guide is a step-by-step guide for employers of all sizes. We can also utilise this to better understand the role of employers in the apprenticeship process.

Similar guides for end-point assessment organisations and trainees will follow the road to an excellent apprenticeship. They highlight the collaborative approach required in delivering apprenticeships, together with the provider guide to delivering high-quality apprenticeships.

What is the Apprenticeship Roadmap? 

Business Needs

Initially it is important to understand the added benefits of having apprenticeships within your business. It is always good to research what is out there and to understand how apprenticeships have benefitted other similar organisations.

Recruiting an apprentice is a cost-effective and efficient strategy to develop talent and a motivated, talented, and qualified workforce.
  • Apprenticeships helped 86 percent of employers build skills that were relevant to their business.
  • Apprenticeships helped 78 percent of firms increase productivity.
  • Apprenticeships assisted 74 percent of firms increase the quality of their product or service.

The Candidate

It is important to reach and recruit from the largest pool of candidates, whilst fully understand the commitment required to have an apprenticeship on board and comprehending any additional support needs.

The government offer support in recruiting from helping you create an apprenticeship service account, to helping you locate an apprenticeship training course and a training provider with the help of find apprenticeship training as well as supporting you recruiting an apprentice to establish your own apprenticeship opportunity. They will also post your apprenticeship position on find an apprenticeship if you make one.

You have control over the recruiting process through out and for more information here.

Funding and Employer Responsibilities

Understanding what funding is available to employers and knowing what are the responsibilities when employing an apprentice is really important to everyone involved.

The government may be able to assist you in paying for apprenticeship training. Whether or not you pay the apprenticeship levy determines the amount you receive. If you have a pay bill of less than £3 million per year, you will need to contribute 5% to the cost of the apprenticeship with the remaining 95% being funded by the government. To find out more, refer to here which covers England and rest of the UK through the links shown.

The Job

Any job within your organisation needs to be fully planned in and supported. You need to ensure that your apprentice can spend at least 20% of their time as off-the-job training.

Your apprentice will receive two sorts of training during their apprenticeship. During your apprentice's usual working hours, a training provider provides "off-the-job" instruction. This programme will teach your apprentice the knowledge, skills, and behaviours required to acquire occupational competence as outlined in the apprenticeship standard. 

You, as the employer, will provide ‘on-the-job' training. To help your apprentice accomplish the task you've recruited them for, you'll need to provide training and supervision.

Training and Assessment Provider

You need to find the right training provider that you feel confident in working with. It is critical to select a training provider that is appropriate for your company. You need to consider how well they communicate about the training with you, what other companies have to say about them and what their apprentices have to say about them. 

You will need to negotiate on the price of the apprenticeship with them and ensure that you carry out an initial assessment prior to learning commencement.

Commitment Statement

Employer must sign a commitment statement with their apprentice and training provider before they begin their learning and training. The following items must be included in the commitment statement:

  • the planned content and schedule for training
  • what is expected and offered by the employer, the training provider and the apprentice
  • how to resolve queries or complaints

Mentoring and Training

Two of the main questions that need addressing on this roadmap about Mentoring and Training are:-

  • Have you noted and tracked apprentice development throughout the process to ensure they are on track?
  • Is your apprentice receiving the right career guidance, mentoring and learner support to ensure success?

Mentoring and Training are so important to your organisation and you need to find the right training provider who will preferably work in line with your strategies, priorities and fulfil your main requirements. The best providers will work in partnership with employers to ensure the programmes we deliver to their staff are tailored to meet their requirements. 

End Point Assessment

End-point assessment (EPA) is a test of your apprentice's knowledge, abilities, and behaviours over the course of their apprenticeship, confirming that they are occupationally competent.

Employers in the sector created the assessments, which are carried out by independent agencies known as end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs).

Celebration

Many organisations consider joining the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network. Through their own employees, they show a strong commitment to apprenticeships and/or traineeships. They have a strong profile in their industry or region, and they represent a wide range of occupations.

Moreover, every year the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers are announced and your business can also enter the National Apprenticeship Awards.

Progression

Once the apprenticeship is over, you need to consider what happens next and what merits come from completing their apprenticeship, this might be a promotion, a higher income, or the opportunity to specialise further in their chosen subject to enhance their career further.

Why are Apprenticeships so important?

Employing an apprentice is a cost-effective and efficient approach to develop talent and a motivated, skilled, and qualified workforce. You can customise the apprenticeship’s training to meet your company's demands, are able to help members of staff master new talents and your workforce can be expanded and upskilled.

What can Ascento offer you?

We are committed to providing the finest quality professional learning and development programmes at Ascento to upskill your existing and new workforce. We don't cut corners when it comes to quality or performance, and we make sure that each programme we give is personalised to the learners' and employers' specific needs and goals.

We're an expert in Digital Marketing and Leadership & Management training and offer tutors with real industry experience. We focus on providing high-quality and effective programmes to our students and have been recently been praised by Ofsted in a recent visitation.

The Ofsted report graded Ascento with “significant progress” acknowledging our leaders and those responsible for governance ensuring that staff teach a curriculum to meet learners’ needs whilst incorporating the provision for remote and online learning. Our leaders have strengthened their processes by recruiting highly experienced and well-informed experts to the board.

Programmes delivered by Ascento’s two schools

All of our programmes have been created to guarantee that our students get the most out of their education and gain the skills they need to advance and succeed in their careers. We recognise that people learn in various ways, so we've provided a variety of options for delegates to consume our information, including webinars, videos, e-books, 1:1 tutorial help, and we even have our own online portal for learning. We can facilitate flexibly online learning and/or blended learning concepts nationally. Our delivery model is adapted to suit the employers and clients we work with.

The School of Digital Marketing

Individuals with limited to intermediate digital marketing skills can enrol in one of two programmes offered by the Digital Marketing school. Our curriculum also has the added benefit of encompassing a professional recognised qualification from organisations such as Google, The Chartered Institute of Marketing and Dot Native.

The School of Management

The Management school provides industry-recognized leadership and management programmes for persons at all levels of management, from supervisory to director. Our Management programmes all include membership in the Chartered Management Institute, which provides students with additional benefits to aid in their learning and growth, and our higher level programmes can lead to certification.

To find out more about Ascento and our learning programmes, download a copy of our programme prospectus here. We are so proud of our learning organisation and everything we have to offer our students.

Helen Abbott

Written by Helen Abbott