Birmingham City Council has become the latest employer to join a campaign creating new apprenticeships across the city region.
Europe's largest local authority is now an employer partner of the Ladder for Greater Birmingham campaign which was launched in 2018 with the aim of creating thousands of new apprenticeships in Birmingham and Solihull.
The city council will now work with the Ladder team to place new members of staff at the authority and help those existing employees taking new courses for their own career progression.
Amarjit Sahota has been the council's culture change manager for nearly two years and leads its apprenticeship and future talent programme.
He said: "The Ladder appealed to us because of what it is trying to achieve by developing people and helping them take these opportunities across the city which is what we are trying to achieve as a council as well.
"We want to see that skills' development within our young people to make sure they are grasping all this investment which is coming into the city and secure employment.
"We will utilise the Ladder and its many connections and networks to help us engage with that wider audience and reach as many people as possible across Birmingham.
"We want to make people aware of the opportunities, not just within the council itself but also via the connections we have with businesses coming here, and use the Ladder as a platform to direct talent to them.
"Some of the work we have planned will see us going into schools to engage with leavers and make them aware of what a good opportunity an apprenticeship is and help them navigate those opportunities."
The Government has previously set public sector bodies a target of ensuring that 2.3 per cent of their workforce each year is new apprenticeship starts.
Mr Sahota said the council's 10,000-strong payroll currently included around 240 apprentices, comprising new recruits and existing staff taking studies aimed at future career progression.
He is himself an apprentice and is studying a senior leadership programme, with the long-term aim of becoming a council director.
Some of the fields in which the authority currently uses apprentices include HR, finance, procurement, civil engineering, adult social care, children's services and housing.
Mr Sahota added: "Not many young people know what we do within the council - everyone has that perception we just clear the bins - but we have such a diverse range of career opportunities so it's about putting this on their radar.
"Ultimately, we need to start accessing this talent to create a future-proofed workforce at the council.
"We are having more internal conversations to create more opportunities - we have lots of apprentices already working right across the council but there are a number of areas where we don't.
"Once we start having these workforce planning conversations, we can identify where there is a need or niche market so we can look at how we can create our own talent.
"It's the art of the possible when it comes to apprenticeships now because there are so many available."
Ladder for Greater Birmingham is run by community development group The Vine Trust and training provider Performance Through People with funding from the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and Birmingham and Solihull Training Provider Network, with BusinessLive publisher Reach Midlands as media partner.
Part of the ongoing campaign has been our annual apprenticeship awards which will return for a fourth outing later this year.
Kevin Davis, Vine Trust chief executive and Ladder chairman, said: "I'm so pleased to welcome Birmingham City Council to the Ladder.
"In addition to being a significant employer of apprentices, it also provides civic leadership to inspire and challenge other stakeholders to make the right choices for the city.
"We look forward to adding this leadership to our apprenticeship drive to encourage others to 'step up to the Ladder of opportunity'."
