Apprenticeships aren't just for young people Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 15:05

During National Apprenticeship Week NIACE is pleased to have been invited to join an initial workshop at HM Treasury looking into expanding Level 3 Apprenticeships for 19-30 year olds.

This review, for the joint Prime Minister's Delivery Unit, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the National Apprenticeship Service Priority Review, will examine the barriers to expanding Level 3 Apprenticeships for 19 to 30 year olds in line with the commitment set out last year in the Skills for Growth Strategy Paper.

The review will determine whether the most significant barriers to expansion are a result of employer-related, provider-related or learner-related factors, and will also examine how the delivery system is working to overcome these barriers.

Alastair Thomson, Principal Policy Officer at NIACE, said:

"Apprenticeships aren't simply for young people. More than 55,000 people over 25 were on programmes in 2008/09. Their training needs are not the same as those of first-time entrants to the labour market and NIACE believes that the system should reflect this and properly fund it."

Giving people the opportunity to learn through apprenticeships can completely transform their lives, as these previous Adult Learners' Week award winners illustrate:

Charlene Smith had a tough start to life. As a child, her family lived in a refuge to escape her abusive father and her schooling was disrupted. By 16, she was in despair; pregnant, lacking any educational qualifications and certain that she had no future, she attempted suicide.

Now a decade later, thanks to her extraordinary strength of mind, a college course in vehicle repainting and an apprenticeship, Charlene, 29, is qualified, confident and able to support her two children. She said:

"Learning has changed me from being a single mum feeling as if I have no hope or future, to a confident woman working in a male-dominated industry, studying for a Level 3 qualification and loving every minute of it."

After leaving school Sarah Arden enrolled in an NVQ in business administration. She soon realised that office work was not for her and she enrolled in another programme that set her on track to join a profession that she loves.

"As my dad is a builder, I have been brought up on sites all my life and I wanted to learn a trade. I chose to train as an electrician as I knew it would be a challenge."

Sarah, 23, enrolled at a local college and completed her first year of study before applying for an advanced apprenticeship so that she could further her education and skills.

"Bloom and Wake Electrical Ltd accepted me and I have since learnt the fundamental essentials of the electrical profession."

Ermal Nasi, 27, came to the UK from Albania in 1999, he could not speak or write any English. But is now well on his way to achieving his goal of becoming a chartered surveyor.

Ermal's passed eight GCSEs within a year of arriving here as a teenager. His latest qualifications include a national certificate in construction, including three distinctions and three merits, and an NVQ. He has done all this while holding down a full-time surveying trainee job in London as part of a two-year apprenticeship.

"I wanted to do an apprenticeship route so that I wasn't just reading about buildings and their construction but actually getting involved," Ermal says. "I felt that by learning in a practical way I would have a deeper understanding and be better qualified as a result."