More opportunities for apprentices

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) has launched its biggest apprenticeship recruitment campaign to date. Twenty apprentices were taken on last year; it is hoped to recruit twice that number in September 2011!

Raising the status of Apprenticeships

More students than ever have applied to university this year. In a bid to beat the tuition fees increase in 2012 some 600,000 young people have sent in their UCAS form this year.  That's more than 5% higher than the same time in 2010 when an estimated 200,000 students missed out on a place altogether.

With thousands more battling for the same number of places - around 479,000 - this year even more students face rejection from all of their university choices.  They will have to decide whether to apply in the year of the higher fees, 2012, or look elsewhere for the opportunity to progress their career.

Apprenticeships - Opening doors to a better future!

As careers teachers we are all currently concerned with the competition for places irrespective of whichever option our young people are considering post-16.  In an earlier piece written on apprenticeship, I encouraged careers teachers to provide a noticeboard, prominently placed in the school, specifically detailing opportunities for national apprenticeship applications.

Widen your search for Apprenticeship opportunities

In my final piece on Apprenticeship for the academic year 2009/10 I was struck by an article in the Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday 27th April 2010 when Symon Ross informed us that the Engineering Training Council (ETC) was inviting applications for more than 100 engineering apprenticeships to begin in September.

The future of apprenticeships lies in the hands of employers

The Building Services Engineering sector (BSE) has developed an excellent reputation across the sector with employers supporting and investing in employer-led apprenticeship training.

This approach has developed quality training in the workplace and is supported by directed learning off-the-job.  The employer-led approach ensures that much more of the apprentices' skills development is carried out on-the-job alongside qualified and experienced employees.

Be Skilled, Be Qualified, Be Paid!

Travelling the two miles recently from Donaghmore to Dungannon by Ulsterbus, I was drawn to the large advertising poster to the back of the driver. The content of which ran something like this;

APPRENTICESHIPS _ Which one works for you?

Be Skilled, Be Qualified, Be Paid

Visit www.apprenticeshipni.info

In these recessionary times the Stormont Committee for Employment and Learning has sought to establish why tens of thousands of young people in the North are disengaged from training and employment.
There are some 40,000 NEETS (not in employment, education and training) in the North, many of whom are not willing to participate in alternative provision.

Apprenticeships that work

Writing in the 'Times Education Supplement' in October 2008 Joseph Lee commented that given the current recession many young people face more competition in getting onto some apprenticeship programmes than in applying to Oxford and Cambridge! With the shortage of places apprenticeships were among the hardest courses in the country to join. There is no doubt that some teenagers are heading to higher education when an apprenticeship would be a better option.

We must prepare now for the jobs of the future!

In the aftermath of the recent STEM click here conferences at CAFRE Greenmount (9/10/2009) and CAFRE (Loughry), which focused on the food and drink, agri-food and land-based occupational sectors ( The agri-food sector is one of the FIVE key sectors identified by the recent Matrix Report click here for potential growth in NI..) there is a key challenge for schools and employers as the need for identifying, investing in and utilising the right skills, both now and over the longer term, is vital to sustain and grow the economy. This exercise in skills development will be critical to ensuring the north emerges strongly from the current downturn.

More companies encouraged to take on 'young workers.'

In an attempt to stave off the 'lost generation' of young people affected by the recession, the Government has called on both public and private sector employers to consider taking on young apprentices. At the beginning of September 2009, an extra 85,000 jobs and training opportunities were announced as part of a British government drive to stem the rising tide of youngsters joining the dole queue.