Evidence suggests that small businesses are often dissuaded from engaging with the apprenticeship program by their perception that apprenticeships are bureaucratic, costly and involve risk - of taking on a young person and of committing to their training for a fixed period in which workload and company income is uncertain. A ‘shared apprenticeship’ model in which a central management organisation takes care of administration and in which the apprentice moves between different employers who share the responsibility for the apprentice’s on-site training removes these problems.
The then [(Educatio
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Evidence suggests that small businesses are often dissuaded from engaging with the apprenticeship program by their perception that apprenticeships are bureaucratic, costly and involve risk - of taking on a young person and of committing to their training for a fixed period in which workload and company income is uncertain. A ‘shared apprenticeship’ model in which a central management organisation takes care of administration and in which the apprentice moves between different employers who share the responsibility for the apprentice’s on-site training removes these problems.
The then [(Education and Learning Wales] ELWa proposed a pilot scheme for shared apprenticeship in its ‘Work based learning improvement plan’ which was approved by the then Welsh Assembly Government’s [now Welsh Government (WG)] Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills in January 2006. Subsequently, the shared apprenticeship pilots were developed and implemented with funding from the then Department of Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) [now Department for Education and Skills (DfES) of the WG and the support of two Sector Skills Councils (SSCs): ConstructionSkills and SEMTA. The pilots were intended to test the viability of operating a shared apprentice approach for a total of 75 apprentices in the construction sector and of 90 apprentices in the engineering sector. In each case, it was intended that approximately a third of each sector’s total number of apprentices should undertake their apprenticeships in three annual cohorts starting in 2007, 2008, and 2009.
In 2010 DfES commissioned BMG Research to undertake an evaluation of the shared apprenticeships pilots. This study forms part of an overarching evaluation of the WG’s Work Based Learning Programs 2007-11. The primary purpose of this evaluation is to report on progress in realising the aims and objectives of the pilots and to provide recommendations for their future roll-out. Overall, implementation and delivery have been very successful. Outcomes for apprentices in the pilots, as far as is measurable to date, appear to be stronger than for apprentices in standard apprenticeships.
Excerpts from publication.
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