The beginning of March was National Apprenticeship Week and to celebrate Skills for Care held a number of events around the country, one of which I was delighted to be part of - our apprenticeship summit. This was a great interactive event with a wide range of partners and included some apprentices who came and shared their experience with participants.
Social care now has a great story to tell about apprenticeships with over 73,000 starts. Of course, it's not just about getting people interested in starting their career in social care through the apprenticeship route. We need people to achieve their qualifications and stay and develop their roles in social care. And that's what we are seeing, with completion rates rising steadily so that they are now over 76%.
So what is an apprenticeship? It's a combination of on and off the job learning and development. A great way of encouraging people to consider a career in social care, particularly but not exclusively young people, because apprentices earn while they learn. Apprentices are employees, who work alongside experienced staff to gain job-specific skills, getting paid whilst they work to achieve qualifications and gain valuable experience. During the past year, Skills for Care, together with brilliant support from our employer apprenticeship champions, has been on a determined campaign to raise awareness of apprenticeships as a key part of supporting people develop long term, rewarding careers in social care.
We held 47 recruitment events for careers advisors, learning and development providers and employers with workshops focusing on apprenticeships. Listening to feedback told us we needed to focus more specifically so nine events were solely for careers advisors. These events promoted all Skills for Care's resources on encouraging people into social care with a strong emphasis on apprenticeships. These events reached 500 people from across the country with excellent feedback. You can see the vast array of resources available here.
One particular resource is focused at year nine students to support them in considering their career choices because we know that for young people starting an apprenticeship is an attractive idea. Supported by badges and wristbands which have proved very popular we're really raising the profile of social care as a career of choice.
Again focusing on young people, we've produced video case studies because we know young people would rather hear from their peers, which is fair enough. You can see these here.
We've worked with Partners in Care on a number of interactive care factor events based on a popular TV show format. A fun way for young people to learn about careers in social care, 71% of those who attended said they would consider a career in our sector.
Our I care…ambassadors have been out visiting over 90 primary and secondary schools talking to students about apprenticeships in social care.
Why are we putting all of this effort in to so much activity to increase the number of apprentices in adult social care? It's because we know that by 2025 we need to recruit new people to fill up to an additional 1 million roles supporting people to live independently in our communities. Those people need to understand the role they are taking on and to have values of dignity, respect and care from the outset. They need to be willing to continually learn and develop their skills. They need to be employees that employers can depend on and in turn be employed by an individual or organisation who will invest in their continued development.
Apprenticeships provide benefits for both employers and employees. 88% of employers who employ apprentices told the National Apprenticeship Service that they believe they lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce .
As well as a great way of attracting new staff, apprenticeships are used by many employers as a useful learning and development route for their current employees across all ages and experiences. Many employers have also recognised the benefits of placing apprenticeships at the heart of their workforce planning and development strategies.
Skills for Care is supporting a number of innovation projects with employers, identifying potential in their current workforce or recruiting new staff to undertake a progression programme. Their employee starts the apprenticeship at the appropriate level with a planned route through to level five. This supports employers to grow their own managers and leaders of tomorrow.
And we ended our summit on a real high as our colleague from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills was able to announce that the employer bid for an adult social care worker apprenticeship trailblazer had been successful. Skills for Care is delighted to have supported this bid and to be working with the employers through a task and finish steering group, led by our vice chair Helen Wilcox, to develop this into an apprenticeship trailblazer standard. So if you're not involved with the apprenticeship programme in adult social care, look what you're missing – and get in touch.
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