There was a record turnout for this year’s ISE Apprenticeship Conference. Simon Reichwald, Chief Progression Officer at Connectr, ISE Fellow and apprenticeship champion, shares key takeaways.
1. Skills, apprenticeships and the levy
The skills gaps we hear about are very real with 62% of employers facing this challenge, and only 19% are implementing a plan to address it.
There’s a lot of change coming down the track from the government to address these gaps, but not at speed. Some of what we do know is the changes to maths and English qualifications and shorter apprenticeships from 12 to 8 months, but not for all and not all at once. There are also the new Foundation Apprenticeships lasting six months, with the option to progress onto L3 or L4.
Nichola Hay from BPP demystified the latest reforms. The slides from the session explain more on what’s to come and a useful timeline.
2. School and college engagement
Successful engagement with schools and colleges drives apprenticeship applications and provides access to a wider pool of talent.
It also educates and upskills young people, parents and teachers on the options available – long before the application stage. This in turn grows confidence in apprenticeships and addresses some of the barriers that exist, particularly for under-represented talent – if they remain untackled, they can lead to talent self-selecting out, or being talked out of applying or accepting an offer.
Amazon shared that they are still being asked what they do and what roles they have, highlighting the extent of the education need, especially if we want to be socially inclusive. We should challenge ourselves to ask, ‘are we reaching all we could’ and ‘are we truly giving all a fair chance to secure an apprenticeship with us?’
The challenges of school and college engagement as well as how to do it efficiently and effectively was a reoccurring theme throughout the conference.
Collaboration is one solution to extend reach and do more with less more. For example, a new social mobility-focused rotational work insight programme across financial services – Discover Finance – and The Prime Commitment for the legal sector.
To help, ISE will be launching a new school and college engagement guide later this year.
3. The apprenticeship business case and ROI
Securing stakeholder buy-in, presenting the business and morale case, and evidencing apprenticeship ROI, all continue to be challenging.
As technology and time pressures drive change for both businesses and candidates, our sector needs to evolve and adapt. Powerful and effective examples include using internal employee networks to do more and extend reach, and giving young people access to existing apprentices. Engaging specialist supplier partners and using technology to show impact and ROI can also be helpful.
4. Setting-up line managers for success
How to best set line managers and the business up for success was a theme which continued from last year’s conference.
This year, we heard from line managers themselves about how they have been supported by the business. They also explained how they set about incrementally building the skills, knowledge and confidence of their apprentices. HSBC’s slide was so useful, so do take a look.
You can also access ISE’s Line Managers Guide to Apprenticeships.
5. Adapting for the regions
The conference covered how to engage talent in the regions and the need to adapt attraction strategies accordingly. One size does not fit all and you need to actively reach out to talent.
Powerful research from Cibyl provided insight into the values of young people and how firms need to show how they align in order to attract them. Severn Trent also shared their five-point plan to maximise their reach. They reiterated the power and impact of data and regularly tracking progression against targets.
A big thank you to the event sponsors, speakers and all who attended as well as support before and during the conference.