Business mogul Lord Sugar is back on our screens seeking his next ‘apprentice’ – but perhaps he should be looking on the Isle of Wight.
The area can boast of 890 people starting on genuine apprenticeship schemes in the nine months to April this year, according to the Department for Education.
Conquering the business world
And forget the brash, sometimes larger-than-life claims of Lord Sugar’s confident candidates – 610 people on the Isle of Wight actually achieved an apprenticeship qualification over the same period.
Just like Lord Sugar’s hopefuls, it seems the apprentices of the Isle of Wight also harbour ambitions to conquer the business world.
The most popular subject area chosen by the apprentices was business, administration and law.
The next most in demand subjects were health, public services and care, and retail and commercial enterprise.
A passport into a range of exciting industries
Apprenticeship and Skills Minister Anne Milton said apprenticeships could be a “passport into a range of exciting industries”, such as nuclear, food science, law, engineering, digital technology, nursing and planning.
The Government says it will be focusing on improving apprenticeships in the 65 most deprived local authorities over the next two years.
Between one and five years to complete
Far from being a quick route to the top, as Lord Sugar’s candidates are hoping for, apprenticeships in reality can take anywhere between one and five years to complete.
An apprentice will typically spend one day a week studying at a college or training organisation, while spending the rest training on the job under the guidance of experienced employees.
44% of apprentices over 25
While popular wisdom might have you believe that apprenticeships are a route mainly for school leavers, this is not the case on the Isle of Wight.
Those aged 25 and over made up 44% of all apprenticeships taken up in the nine months to April, while 30% were aged 19-24 and 26% were 16-18.
Three types of apprenticeship
The DfE publishes figures on three kinds of apprenticeships – intermediate, advanced, and higher.
On the Isle of Wight, 410 people began intermediate apprenticeships – the equivalent to GCSEs – last year, while 380 started advanced ones, the equivalent of A levels.
The remaining 100 embarked on competitive higher apprenticeships, which are on a par with foundation degrees or above.
More women than men
There is no data available on the gender of the apprentices in the last nine months but in the 2016-17 academic year – August to July – 60% of people taking up an apprenticeship were women.
National picture
Across England, around 290,500 workers began new apprenticeships over the nine months to April, and more than 181,600 successfully finished one during the same period.
However, this was 156,400 fewer than during the same nine month period in the 2016-17 academic year.
New Apprenticeship Levy
The plunging numbers have been blamed on the introduction of the new Apprenticeship Levy – a tax that some larger employers pay towards a national fund for the training of apprentices – in April 2017.
Critics say the change has caused confusion for employers, and put them off taking on apprentices.
Anne Milton MP continued:
“New, high-quality apprenticeships are being developed at all levels, all the time.
“We have a range of measures in place to help people from all backgrounds to take up an apprenticeship, and we give extra funding to providers training apprentices in the most disadvantaged areas.
“You can find out all about the apprenticeships available near you by visiting the government’s Find an Apprenticeship website – so take a look and consider doing an apprenticeship today.”
Article shared by Data Reporter as part of OnTheWight’s collaboration with Press Association and Urbs Media
