Search on for companies to help lead new campaign
This week we are introducing JB Skills Training head of ICT apprenticeships, Gary Dowson.
Gary, who has worked with other training providers and was in the Royal Navy, is heading up the ICT Trailblazer campaign, which dovetails perfectly with the Wear In Campaign.
A Trailblazer is a group of employers developing apprenticeships standards specific to job roles in their sector.
The standards they create will either be completely new (i.e. for job roles that have never had an apprenticeship programme before) or will gradually replace existing apprenticeships frameworks for job roles.
The frameworks and the new standards are written definitions of the learning requirements for apprenticeship programmes. They are developed to ensure that all apprenticeship programmes are delivered and measured consistently.
In order to ensure that apprenticeships are employer led and therefore benefit the company the apprentices work within, frameworks are gradually being replaced by apprenticeships standards which are developed by groups of employers.
Gary is now looking for ten companies in the region to join his ICT specific group.
He said: “The overall objective of the new apprenticeships standards is to ensure that apprenticeships are truly employer led. Employers over a size, as talked about in previous weeks of the Wear In campaign, will have to pay the levy. For that payment, they, as well as smaller companies need to ensure they maximise on their apprenticeship programs.
“The way to do that is be a Trailblazer, where you get to be part of designing the standards that should be achieved to meet their own needs, the needs of their sector and the economy more widely.”
The new standards focus on how an apprentice should demonstrate mastery of an occupation, and meet professional registration. This then becomes a document that outlines the skills, knowledge required of the apprentice and the job they need to be able to do by the time they have completed their apprenticeship.
More information on JB Skills Training and how to become a Trailblazer is available by calling Gary on 0191 510 5519 or visiting www.jb-skillstraining.co.uk