• Scheme will address skills and employment gaps in core regional industries 
• Project will focus on opportunity in areas where take-up is lower 
• Work with Government ‘Nudge Unit’ will use behavioural insights to stimulate interest

A fresh intake of apprentices will go into schools and colleges to act as ambassadors as they talk to other young people about the benefits of vocational training and T-levels.  The Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) Careers Hub has teamed up with the Government’s Behavioural Insights Team – the so-called ‘Nudge Unit’ – for an innovative project designed to get pupils and families thinking differently about apprenticeships.  UK-wide research found that two-thirds of young people have not discussed traineeships or T-Levels at school. Just over 14% of students had never heard about apprenticeships.   The new project will address this by building a network of Apprentice Ambassadors (AAs) to go into schools and colleges across Leicester and Leicestershire to answer questions about their experience and inspire others to consider it as a career path.  The project will increase the number of local AAs being recruited, trained and made available for classroom engagement. AAs will be from a range of sectors and social backgrounds. They will be supported by Employer Ambassadors (EAs) who have a desire to support their communities and develop pipelines of new talent.   Kevin Harris, the Chair of the LLEP board, said: “By teaming up with Government behavioural insight specialists, we have created an innovative new approach whereby young people can discuss apprenticeships in their classrooms with AAs that they can relate to.  “Developing this project will help to increase the region’s productivity by ensuring that we have people with the skills needed by our employers. 

 “It will also focus on parts of the region where apprenticeships are not typically being taken up.

“Such inclusivity is important because young people are particularly impacted by changes in the labour market which reduce entry-level positions typically catered for by apprenticeships.” 

The project is part of the LLEP’s Careers Hub and Apprenticeship Strategy ambition to have a diverse Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which engages and inspires the region’s future workforce. 

It will ultimately help to change perceptions about apprenticeships in the region. Young people who express an interest in vocational training will be introduced to the local Apprenticeship Skills and Knowledge Team (ASK) and the Careers Hub network.  The LLEP is now looking for local employers to join the AAN as EAs. In doing so they will develop the skills of their own apprentices, create a pipeline of future talent, and give back to schools in their communities.  Local organisations working with apprentices, including all local FE colleges, Cadent Gas and the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, have already pledged support.  Pieter Eksteen, Education and Business Partnership Manager at the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, said: “Families are the biggest influencers of career decisions by children and this new project will make a difference by demonstrating to them that apprenticeships are an excellent option for school leavers and a genuine alternative to university.”  Gerarde Manley, Careers Hub Manager at the LLEP, said:  “Leading on this project with a broad range of partners will help inspire young people to hear first-hand about the broad range of apprenticeships available locally and where it can lead them.”  The project has been launched as part of National Apprenticeship Week. Local employers, schools and colleges are now invited to identify up to 10 young people in their organisation to join the network.   The project will run through to July 2022. Learn more, or express interest in becoming an EA, by visiting https://bit.ly/LLEPApprenticeAmbassadors 

Walaiti Rathore, a former partner at an East Midlands law firm specialising in all aspects of licensing, gambling as well as licensing prosecutions and related regulatory law, launched Licensing Law Consultancy (LLC) in February 2017. LLC was successfully designed as a new innovative licensing service for the leisure and hospitality industry, providing cost effective specialist advice and training. Since setting up LLC, Walaiti has built on his reputation for successfully dealing with the most challenging cases for independent, multiple and national operators as often reported in the press. He has also continued to attract new clients, successfully working with national and international franchise brands. In February 2018, industry leaders from the world of licensing and hospitality arrived in Nottingham to celebrate the first birthday of LLC. To mark the milestone, a party was held at Crowne Plaza Hotel which was attended by local operators, landlords, investors and breweries as well as representatives from brands with a national and international presence. Paul Chase, a former director of CPL Training Group, the UK’s top training provider for retail and hospitality, gave a speech at the event. He said: “It’s always less risky to remain in someone else’s organisation than to start your own. Starting Licensing Law Consultancy was therefore a brave step and one which testifies to Walaiti’s entrepreneurial spirit.” In June 2019, Licensing Law Consultancy organised and hosted the first National Licensing Week (NLW) event in Nottingham to celebrate and raise awareness of licensing and the role it plays in everyday lives. NLW was in its fourth year but this was the first event of its kind, a party held to celebrate NLW and to raise awareness. The event was attended by members of the Institute of Licensing, Nottingham Business Improvement District, Pub Watch, Hospitality Association, other industry representatives such as the Gambling Commission and leading operators with a local and national presence as well as leading businesses and professionals from all sectors. Guests were treated to canapes, dinner, complimentary drinks all evening and received designer gifts from global fashion retailer, Paul Smith. The chair of the Institute of Licensing, Dan Davies, said: “I am delighted to support this event and I thank Walaiti Rathore for having the vision and energy to make this happen.” Plans to resume events for the benefit of the hospitality industry are currently underway.

As National Apprenticeship Week (7-13 February) gets underway, new research from Grant Thornton UK LLP shows that East Midlands medium sized businesses are increasingly making use of apprenticeships as a means of upskilling their people at all levels. With job vacancies and resignations at record highs, Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker survey shows that there’s an upward trend of apprenticeship use in the mid-market which is set to expand in 2022. 66% of respondents in the East Midlands agreed that more of their people will be trained using apprenticeships this year than in 2021. Employers saw additional strategic benefits to apprenticeships, with two thirds (66%) of the business leaders surveyed saying that apprenticeships had helped to improve social mobility in their business and more than half (60%) agreed that formal development supports employee wellbeing. The study found that mid-market organisations are now using apprenticeships at all levels of the business from entry level to senior management. The majority of those surveyed (54%) said that the Apprenticeship Levy had been a motivating factor in the increased use. This growing use of apprenticeships in the East Midlands mirrors the national picture. From the 601 UK-wide respondents to Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker survey, all but one business said that they currently use apprenticeships to develop their people. This has increased from a similar study conducted by the firm in 2018, when 86% of mid-market respondents said they used apprenticeships in their organisation. Sue Knight, partner and practice leader at Grant Thornton UK LLP in the Midlands, said: “Apprenticeships are increasingly being seen as an agile and valuable tool that can help businesses achieve a variety of goals. Most notably, with job vacancies and attrition currently reaching record highs, the ability to attract and retain key talent has become a priority challenge for many employers in the East Midlands. “Thanks to the personal developmental potential that apprenticeships offer, they are being embraced as an effective solution to this problem. “We’re seeing businesses become ever more strategic with their use of apprenticeships to address a variety of issues such as improving diversity in the workforce, achieving sustainable recruitment and replacing traditional graduate programmes with highly desirable qualifications. “The ability to tailor apprenticeships to specific development requirements is especially useful, with many firms using courses to add valuable new skills in the fields of digital, finance and data analysis into their organisation.” According to rolling data from Grant Thornton’s Business Outlook Tracker, investment expectations for skills development in the East Midlands mid-market have fluctuated greatly throughout the challenges of 2021. At the start of 2021, 58% of businesses in the East Midlands said they intended to invest more in skills development over the next six months, a figure which has gone up and down throughout the year, last recorded in December at 32%. Sue Knight suggests that this dip in investment expectations has less to do with appetite for skills development than it does with rapidly changing priorities: “The expectations for investment in skills reacts according to the confidence that businesses have in the strength of the economy. In short, when optimism is high, expectation for investment in skills is high. “The upheavals that firms have faced since early 2020 means that whilst businesses recognise the need for development, they also require cost effective solutions tailored to their business needs. The Apprenticeship Levy helps with this and has become an integrated part of Learning and Development funding for many employers by providing full funding for qualifications up to master’s degree level.”

Arc Partnership and Nottingham Trent University have announced a new strategic partnership focusing on developing career pathways for growing local talent across the construction sector and sharing insights and opportunities of the skills needed by the future workforce. The partnership will explore areas of mutual benefit and take a collaborative approach to the sharing of knowledge in response to sector challenges. The partnership will include working with research groups from the University’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment and sharing learning from the EnergiSprong approach used by NTU in its Remourban EU Project, a scheme which explored the retrofitting of residential properties in Nottingham. Arc Property Services Partnership Limited, trading as Arc Partnership, supports public sector clients in the creation of efficient, safe and sustainable land and property portfolios.  Formed in 2016 as a Joint Venture Company between Nottinghamshire County Council and SCAPE, its services include multi-disciplinary property design, consultancy, master planning, regeneration, project and programme management, emergency, reactive, risk management, asset management, and planned maintenance. Dan Maher, Managing Director of Arc Partnership, said: “Against the backdrop of a climate emergency and the local economy rebuilding itself post-pandemic, a focus on employability and maximising the skills and knowledge to deliver on Nottinghamshire’s net zero ambitions has become mission critical. “But it’s no secret that the construction industry is faced with a large skills shortage that may affect its ability to tackle these challenges. Our partnership with Nottingham Trent University will enable us to share our industry insight and pool resources to nurture the talent of the future and help to plug the green skills gap.” Executive Dean Andrew Knight echoed the sentiment, adding: “Working closely with Arc Partnership presents a unique opportunity for our students to gain first-hand experience of working in industry, allowing them to learn about the real challenges facing professionals. “It will also enable our students to provide potential solutions for businesses which may not have been considered before, helping shape the sector of tomorrow in new and innovative ways. “We have ambitions to develop a centre of excellence for low carbon construction skills and retrofitting expertise to help create and retrofit buildings to meet all of society’s sustainability expectations. We see Arc Partnership being pivotal in the development of this, and providing the essential bridge between industry and academia.” Councillor Reg Adair, vice chairman of the Economic Development and Asset Management Committee at Nottinghamshire County Council said the tie up between the private, public and university sectors was vital as so many new industries are coming to the fore. Councillor Adair said: “Today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce and they need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge needed for jobs in the construction, energy and technology worlds going forward. “Nottinghamshire County Council recently declared a climate emergency and we are putting the green agenda right at the heart of our pledge to achieve Net Zero by 2030. This is the trajectory of most companies throughout the country and gives a clear indication that the green agenda and achieving Net Zero targets will very much be at the core of local authority and private industry’s plans for the foreseeable future. “That is why a partnership like this is so important so that we can garner knowledge from industry and the workplace to inform universities of the skills and training needed for jobs over the coming decades. This in turn will no doubt have a significant knock on effect for the economic prosperity of Nottinghamshire.”