Simon Matin, Apprenticeship Programme Manager
Did you know that £330m of the apprenticeship levy funding went unspent last year? That’s funding that could have gone towards upskilling your employees.
It’s clear that there is a grey area when it comes to apprenticeship awareness as HR and learning and development professionals continue to miss out on the chance to retrain and upskill their staff, especially during the height of a pandemic where employees are still experiencing being furloughed.
With work-life continuing to steer towards a new normal through significant change across the globe, it’s ideal for businesses to support employee development along the way.
If you’re unsure about what you can gain from apprenticeship training, take a look at these five interesting facts that may change your mind:
- Generous government training grants are available for businesses to retrain and upskill their current employees.
- Employees, including furloughed employees can accelerate learning during the pandemic and beyond, and gain qualifications that can add further credibility to the business and support progression.
- Apprenticeship training can be adapted according to your business needs and supports filling skill gaps.
- Retraining, expanding and upskilling employees (including furloughed employees) maintains their motivation and self-esteem, overall improving their mental wellbeing.
- 96% of employers that take on an apprentice say apprentices benefit their business, according to The National Apprenticeship Service.
Despite a positive continuous growth in the number of apprenticeship starts for apprentices aged 25 and older, there still remains the fact that, when looking at figures of unspent apprenticeship levy funding, many HR and L&D professionals are missing the opportunity to benefit from retraining, upskilling and expanding their workforce.
