Do you have happy apprentices? If you believe so, get Accredited and stand out from the crowd

Join the Next Gen Makers community and get recognised with the UK’s first and only Accreditation that recognises great employers specifically for engineering apprenticeships. Backed by our strategic partner and national manufacturing organisation Make UK, this Accreditation validates your business as an employer of choice; based on the feedback of your existing engineering apprentices – ensuring you differentiate and stand out, whilst helping young people to select the most suitable employer for the start of their engineering career.

The Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Accreditation was launched in 2021 by Next Gen Makers with the backing of our strategic partners and national manufatcuring body Make UK.

The prestigious Accreditation is now proudly held by a wide variety of engineering & manufacturing firms who are all committed to being the best employers they can be for engineering apprenticeships and creating opportunities for young people. By shining a light on the best employers in the UK, we are helping to change perceptions about engineering apprenticeship opportunities and careers in the sector itself.

The UK’s first and only Employer Accreditation specifically recognising great employers for engineering apprenticeships

“We are incredibly proud to have maintained the Gold standard ‘Excellent Employer’ status for our Engineering apprenticeship scheme. This recognition underscores our commitment to providing high-quality training and invaluable opportunities”

Chris Hawkins, Apprentice Manager, Teledyne E2V

How it works:

90% of the Accreditation process is based on the feedback of your current engineering apprentices via our Apprentice Satisfaction Survey, with the remaining 10% coming from your company committing to benchmark your scheme against industry best practice. If you have happy apprentices, why not get recognised as an employer of choice?

1. Take the Benchmarking Questionnaire

Join the Next Gen Makers community at any time to Benchmark, learn and improve. When you are ready, opt in to one of 4 annual Accreditation cycles: January, April, June or October

2. Accreditation Process

90% of the Accreditation score is based on feedback from our Apprentice Satisfaction Survey, with the other 10% coming from Benchmarking and your commitment to continuous improvement of your scheme. There are 2 levels to the Accreditation: Gold and Silver. 90-100 points achieves the Gold standard, 80-89.9 achieves Silver and less than 79.9 is no Accreditation.

3. Apprentice Survey

The Apprentice Satisfaction Survey is distributed by Next Gen Makers to 100% of your current cohort of Engineering Apprentices that have been with you for 6 months+. It must be completed by a minimum of 75%. It includes 20 questions covering: ‘My course’, ‘My Wellbeing’ and ‘ My Learning Experience’

4. Receive Accreditation

Achieve Accreditation. Once achieved, you are re-Accredited annually with the same process. You will be provided with the digital Accreditation assets to proudly display on your online channels, as well as future recruitment campaigns. Your Employer Profile page within our Excellent Employer Directory will also be updated with your new Accreditation status

When you join the Next Gen Makers community, you automatically feature within our groundbreaking Engineering Apprenticeships: Excellent Employers Online Careers Platform, which promote the best employers for engineering apprenticeships into school and colleges nationwide.

The platform is aimed at teachers and school careers advisers, providing them with information and resources to inspire and inform students whilst enabling effective signposting to the best employers locally to them for those interested in engineering apprenticeships.

“To know that your employer cares as much about your apprenticeship experience as you do, I find very reassuring. For someone leaving school or college, knowing your employer has received this accreditation means you can trust that you are going into your career with an employer that will deliver on what you are promised”

Jacob Church, Engineering Apprentice, Teledyne E2V

Start your journey to Accreditation…

If you believe in uniting to promote the future of UK engineering, want to enjoy the benefits of making your early careers scheme best in class and/ or getting recognised nationally as an employer of choice, we’d love to hear from you.