THREAD: This afternoon, we will be watching the All-Party Parliamentary Group on apprenticeships – they are discussing how to ensure that apprenticeships help young people into employment as the UK continues its economic recovery.

Speaking are:
Richard Hamer, education and skills director, BAE Systems
@ljrawlingsm, CEO of Youth Employment UK
@CarleneJackson, CEO and founder, Cloud 9
Siobhan Randell, Inclusion and Diversity Lead, WhiteHat
@FionaAldridge, director for policy and research, @LearnWorkUK

Co-chair of the group starts things off @karinsmyth – she says that she's proud that of the annual report the group published this year. You can read it here: https://connectpa.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/APPG-on-Apprenticeships-2019-2020-report-i.pdf

Harner says that at BAE systems there were no apprentices put on furlough – and that they took on 750 apprenticeships in the last cycle and are planning to recruit 800 more this year.

He says that recruitment still went ahead with virtual interviews, apprenticeships were inducted in waves and that the induction process itself happened virtually as well

He says that apprenticeships in their first year and last year were prioritised for face-to-face delivery – out of the 2,000 apprentices at BAE, 800 are on base doing absolutely essential work

Garner says that the flexibility given to employers from IfATE meant that the majority of apprentices managed to get through their end-point assessment and complete.

On Kickstart, there will be 30 people starting March – and Garner hopes that 90 per cent of them will go on to start an apprenticeship in September

@ljrawlings says that they have had one and a half million young people access the careers and skills guidance on @YEUK2012

She says that young people are really interested in apprenticeships, but the availability of quality apprenticeships is a big challenge

. @ljrawlings says that there must be work done with SMEs to help them to understand apprenticeship quality and opportunities

She says that prior to Covid, young people were gaining more awareness of apprenticeships, with more employers and providers going into schools promoting apprenticeships.

She says that there are still big gaps in gender, ethnicity and disadvantage when it comes to access to apprenticeships.
The social mobility commission published some great research on this last summer: https://www.tes.com/news/report-apprenticeship-levy-fails-disadvantaged

She says that there is a strong appetite for apprenticeships – but the challenge is make sure there are right and appropriate qualification opportunities where every young person lives