Is your organisation an employer of choice for engineering apprenticeships? If you believe so, get accredited and stand out from the crowd

Join the Next Gen Makers community and pursue the Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Accreditation, backed by the manufacturers organisation Make UK. This Accreditation recognises the best employers in the UK for engineering apprenticeships, helping you to differentiate and stand out, whilst helping young people to select the best 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 the best employers for engineering apprenticeships

“The Employer Accreditation and the process to achieve it has been invaluable for Siemens Digital Industries. It shows that we are a serious employer, whilst validating that we are doing things well and that our apprentices are at the heart of everything we do”

Johnny Mathieson, Early Careers Professionals Manager, Siemens Digital Industries

How it works:

The feedback of current Apprentices and Training Providers is a key part of the criteria in awarding the Accreditation to employers, in addition to the company being benchmarked against industry best practice on an annual basis during your journey within the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme.

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.