A massive skills gap are vital to filling it’
ing support for adults over the age of 24 wishing to get back into the workplace.
Mike Thompson, director of apprenticeships at Barclays, says: “Once out of work, older workers face a much tougher task to find the opportunities to get back into full employment again.
“We believe that age or social circumstances shouldn’t be a barrier or deciding factor in finding a viable route to employment. Reskilling can be achieved at any age.”
To date, Barclays has recruited 89 Bolder Apprentices since its launch in 2015.
Some of the big accountancy firms are also offering apprenticeships that don’t have an age cap.
EY, KPMG and PwC all offer similar opportunities for those looking for a career in finance. EY currently supports experienced professionals who have taken a career break of between two and 10 years to return to the professional workplace.
EY Reconnect is a 12-week paid programme that offers training, mentoring and coaching, while working on live client projects, with the opportunity of a permanent position on completion.
The programme is targeted at former managers.
The company is also looking to recruit 200 students to their award winning Business Apprenticeship scheme that will start in September this year.
Successful applicants will work towards an apprenticeship and a globally recognised accountancy qualification, on a structured programme that will offer on-the-job coaching and the opportunity to work with EY clients from day one.
The full-time role will have a starting salary of up to £21,500 and the career path and experiences will be the same as for graduates.
Sally Bucknall, EY director, diversity and inclusiveness, says: “There are professionals with rich experience and wisdom that have taken some time out, for whatever reason, and are ready to return to the workplace.
“In our industry, it is common to lose talent at manager and senior manager level. EY Reconnect offers a structured route back into the profession, whilst helping us to attract talented individuals with diverse perspectives that can add value to our people, our business and our clients.”
PwC has increased the number of places on its Back to Business returnto-work programme tenfold to help get more talented women back into the workplace after career breaks.
The 16-week paid senior eturn-towork programme started in PwC’s Deals business and due to its success is being extended to all of the firm’s business areas.
Seventy-five per cent of the first intake have taken on permanent roles in PwC’s Deals business. The programme aims to help bring senior professional women back into the workplace who have had a career break of more than two years, but is open to all.
KPMG’s Return to Work scheme also entails a 12-week internship programme for people looking to return to the workforce after an extended career break. While it tends to attract women, the scheme does not have an age limit.
Opportunities, however, are not limited to the professional services sector. BT’s Openreach is recruiting trainees to join its engineering workforce.
The local network business, which is part of BT Group, is seeking recruits to fill new, full-time and permanent roles to extend its fibre broadband network and improve customer service.
It is part of a UK-wide initiative to hire 1,500 trainee engineers over the next eight months.
And National Express runs a scheme to recruit people for whom age and extended career breaks can pose a barrier to finding employment, including the over-50s, women returning to work after raising children, the long-term unemployed and full-time carers.