As part of a Daily Focus campaign leading up to National Apprenticeship Week, Tom Malpass, Business Development Manager for Apprenticeships at Buxton and Leek College, describes the popularity of apprenticeships with local employers.
“As the Business Development Manager for Apprenticeships at Buxton and Leek College, most people assume that I spend most of my time ‘selling’ apprenticeships to employers.
In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Most employers already want to take on apprentices to help futureproof their business and see the benefits of using apprenticeships to upskill existing staff.
In fact, most of my time is spent educating employers as to the processes and requirements of apprenticeships, along with how the Knowledges, Skills and Behaviours contained within different apprenticeship Standards need to align with an apprentice’s role in the workplace.
When employers have the capacity to understand and support apprentices, apprentices have the desire to learn and are in the right job role. And when training providers provide clear and structured support, apprenticeships will provide a great opportunity to all parties.
In short, it is a team effort with all involved getting out what they put it. Information should be clear, and support given where required, with apprenticeship Standard and apprentice job role well aligned to allow for maximum quality of learning and evidence for a portfolio.
I’m proud to say that the team we have at BLC are just that, we are a TEAM and as such we have employers return to us over and over again because of the service we provide.
Our tutors are more than just educators, they are the continued link between employer, apprentice and college, our support team are always on hand to help and go the extra mile and our leadership is truly focused on quality.
All of this has meant that this year we have seen a continued increase in our number of enrolled apprentices across all programmes, including hair, beauty, catering/hospitality, carpentry, engineering, business admin, Early Years, accounting/finance, teaching assistant, team leading and operations management.
If you would like to find out more about how apprenticeships such as these could help benefit your organisation please feel free to get in touch with us at feapprenticeships@blc.ac.uk or, for more information visit www.blc.ac.uk.”
