There’s so much more to apprenticeships than you might think and over National Apprenticeship Week 2019 we took the opportunity to celebrate what they have to offer.
Each of these apprenticeships is in an area where employers had identified skills shortages and the Institute worked with these employers to set up high-quality apprenticeships. To demonstrate the breadth of opportunity apprenticeships now offer, these range from entry level two right up to degree level.
We recently visited Jennifer Hollidge, UK Production Training Co-ordinator at Mulberry, who was part of the Leather Craftsperson Trailblazer. During our visit we spoke to both Jennifer and some fantastic leather crafts apprentices about apprenticeships and how they are benefitting them at Mulberry.
In 2005 we recognised that the factory was facing the prospect of a skills shortage with more than 50% of workers over 50, and 13% over 65. With plans to expand the factory, we needed to secure our future by reducing the skills shortage and rebalance the age distribution. This was the inception of Mulberry’s apprenticeship scheme.
We are passionate about ensuring that the craft of leatherworking is handed down to future generations of craftspeople and believe that our apprenticeship has a positive impact on the business, the individual and the community.
In the thirteen years since its inception, more than 90 apprentices have completed the programme. Some of which have gone on to apply their skills and knowledge in different roles across the business such as; Product Development, Planning and Implementation. One of our Leather Goods Manufacturing apprentices from 2013, Harrison Malik is now Mulberry’s Development Technician and has represented the Company at special events internationally.
Jennifer Hollidge, UK Production Training Co-ordinator
You can read more about the leather craftsperson standard and all level 2 apprenticeships in our standard section.
You can read more about the heritage engineering technician standard and all level 3 apprenticeships in our standard section.
We recently visited Framestore which is a visual effects and content studio and spoke to Amy Smith who is head of talent. We also spoke to a number of their apprentices undertaking the visual effects apprenticeships.
You can read more about the assistant technical director (visual effects) and junior 2D artist (visual effects) standard and find all level 4 apprenticeships in our standard section.
We spent the day with two Marine Pilot Apprentices at Associated British Ports in Immingham. It was brilliant to speak to them about their role and see them in action at the ports. You can read more about marine apprenticeships in our blog post.
You can read more about the marine pilot standard and find all level 5 apprenticeships in our standard section.
Hear from Hajra Bibi, a research scientist apprentice at GSK who is also a member of the Institute's apprentice panel. We also spoke to Georgia Cresswell, a Pathology apprentice at MedImmune who is also on the panel - hear from Georgia on our blog.
You can read more about Hajra's laboratory scientist standard and find all level 6 and 7 apprenticeships in our standard section.