Benchmarking and insight organisation Next Gen Makers are set to launch a groundbreaking national platform on the 18th April to promote the best employers for engineering apprenticeships.
The ‘Engineering Apprenticeships: Excellent Employers’ online directory and engineering careers resource will be made freely available to careers leaders and other influencers at high schools and colleges nationwide, helping them to inform and inspire students regarding the opportunities in the sector and more easily signpost those interested to the best employers in their region.
Featured within the directory are companies that have achieved the Engineering Apprenticeships Employer Kitemark – a national employer accreditation backed by manufacturing organisation Make UK and achieved via the Next Gen Makers Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme.
The Kitemark has two levels, the Gold standard ‘Engineering Apprenticeships: Excellent Employer’ status and the Silver ‘Engineering Apprenticeships: Aspiring For Excellence’ status.
Companies with the Kitemark will be joined in the directory by those that are currently ‘Pursuing Accreditation’ and those that are ‘Benchmarking’ and best practice sharing, working towards ensuring their apprenticeship schemes are best in class via the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme.
Next Gen Makers have chosen to launch the platform at an event hosted by University Technical College (UTC) Leeds on the 18th April as part of the Leeds Manufacturing Festival, of which Next Gen Makers are headline sponsors.
The event is for delegates from engineering firms and schools alike that wish to learn more about the platform initiative, hear from a panel discussion regarding how we can collaborate to promote engineering careers and network with each other.
Leeds Manufacturing Festival is run by the Leeds Manufacturing Alliance, supported by sponsors, the festival aims to promote greater awareness of the range and depth of opportunities careers in manufacturing present for young people in the region through a packed programme of events that run throughout the year.
Next Gen Makers Managing Director Adam Tipper comments: “With an acute shortage of engineers in the UK, it is imperative that we attract young people to the sector, but also retain them once they start their engineering career via apprenticeships. However, government figures for apprenticeships show that hundreds of thousands of apprentices quit each year, because of a negative experience with employers.
“Engineering and manufacturing cannot afford such a talent drain, so it is imperative that we help companies that are committed to running engineering apprenticeship schemes to understand how to create the best possible apprentice experience within well-structured schemes. In turn, this will help them to retain the talent within their workforce during the apprenticeship and beyond.
“80% of the annual Kitemark accreditation process is based on experiential feedback from existing Engineering Apprentices at these companies. The other 20% is split between benchmarking analysis/ evidence of continuous improvement to the apprenticeship scheme and training provider feedback.
“The Kitemark is heavily weighted towards the feedback of existing Engineering apprentices – because who better to validate an employer for these apprenticeships, than the people who are living them right now. These are the stakeholders that matter most and quite rightly, based on their feedback, we are validating companies as a great place for other young people to start their engineering careers”.
Through the Next Gen Makers Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme, engineering and manufacturing companies all over the UK can benchmark their approach to running their apprenticeship schemes against industry best practice, identify where to improve and learn from a community of like-minded firms to share best practice and ideas.
Johnny Mathieson, Early Career Professionals Manager at Siemens Digital Industries comments: “Having the Gold standard ‘Excellent Employer’ status for the Make UK Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Kitemark benefits Siemens Digital Industries because it validates what we are doing and shows that we are a serious employer of Apprentices and how important Apprentices are to our company”.
Michele Bickerton, People & Development Director at Thomas Dudley Limited, holders of the Gold standard ‘Excellent Employer’ status of the Kitemark adds: “Benchmarking as part of the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme has benefited us because it makes you think about where you are at. We can always think that we are doing the best we can, but when you look at the benchmarking questions and answer them honestly, you can identify gaps. It does make you stop and think, which is a really good thing to do.
“Our apprenticeship Scheme has definitely benefited from the Programme. Because we have benchmarked and we are looking at what we can do better, we are doing a lot more for our apprentices. If you approach self-reflecting of your apprenticeship scheme via benchmarking openly and honestly it will help you to identify what you are doing well, what you can do more of and what you can do better.
“Having the Make UK Engineering Apprenticeships ‘Excellent Employer’ Kitemark status is more than just using the logo, it also means that we can tell a story. Our apprentices are just brilliant, they work so hard, and they are our future. From an internal point of view, our apprentices and managers can also see that we are getting recognition from it and are committed to it”.