Apprentices bring considerable value to organisations and can provide your business with a highly skilled workforce, boost your productivity, profitability and staff retention and bring new ideas and innovation to your business.

An Apprenticeship combines on the job training with nationally recognised qualifications.  There are over 250 different types of Apprenticeship frameworks covering 1,200 job roles, ranging from accountancy to textiles, engineering to veterinary nursing, business administration to construction.

They are available at 3 levels:

•        Intermediate: equivalent to 5 A*– C GCSE’s;

•        Advanced: equivalent to 2 A Levels;

•        Higher: equivalent to a foundation degree and level 4 qualifications.

Businesses that offer Apprenticeship programmes view them as beneficial to their long-term development. Most businesses (82 percent) employed an apprentice to build

the skills capacity within their businesses.

Source: 2011 British Chambers of Commerce research

Four out of five employers say Apprenticeship are likely to play a bigger part in their future recruitment policy and three quarters of employers say Apprenticeships have reduced their recruitment costs.

Source: 2012 Populus research

The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) was launched in April 2009 and focuses on increasing the number of Apprenticeships in England. NAS work with employers to help them introduce apprentices into their business, help those looking to start their careers to find an Apprenticeship opportunity and contribute towards the costs of the training and qualifications within an Apprenticeship.

NAS has a dedicated team of employer account managers who will take employers through the whole process to recruit an apprentice, working closely with them to meet their business’s training needs and identifying which type of Apprenticeship frameworks are suitable.

To find out how Apprenticeships can deliver a real difference for your business, telephone 08000 150 600 or visit apprenticeships.org.uk