Some of Teesside’s most experienced business leaders have sent out a powerful message about the importance of apprenticeships to equip workers with the right skills.
With so many new investments and breakthrough technologies, the Tees Valley Combined Authority held an event during National Apprenticeship Week to find out what was working and where we had to do better if we were going to commit to creating a ‘Workforce for Tomorrow’.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: "We have high hopes for our young people across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool. We have a huge array of game-changing projects coming in the green industries of tomorrow with thousands of jobs in the offing - but we need our people to have the right skills and knowhow to reap the benefits of this boom.
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"The relationship between businesses and ourselves has never been more important - and the role apprenticeships can play in nurturing this bond and ensuring generations to come are equipped with the right knowledge has never been more vital."
At Teesworks Academy, key voices from business and education were brought together to assess apprenticeships and find a way forward.
Sharon Lane, Managing Director of Tees Components, Greg Chapman, Academy Manager of Applebridge Construction, Jo Burgess, Director of Apprenticeships at Teesside University, Grant Glendinning, Principle and Chief Executive of The Education Training Collective and Karl Pemberton, MD of Active Financial Planners agreed that while areas like the Apprenticeship Levy still weren’t working, apprenticeships were still the best route for people wanting to get the best possible start in a new career.
Jo Burgess told the audience Teesside University was determined to ‘connect the skills ecosystem’.
- Watch the full video of the event HERE
She said: “I think we need to do better on that front connecting with our regional skills partners, to provide the skill solutions, because what we hear an awful lot from employers is that they really like the idea of apprenticeships but actually finding the talent or encouraging the talent or securing people that are interested in delivering and wanting to do apprenticeships is a big piece. I think the other thing certainly from Teesside’s perspective, and certainly what we're talking about at ministerial level is about how we differentiate our offer in order that we're delivering what the industry needs and complementing provision in the region.
“I think fundamentally, we're all on the same page, but we’ve just got to connect the dots a bit better because it feels quite siloed. I think we have to be smarter about helping businesses to understand how they can utilise apprenticeships to have that career pipeline right the way from level two all the way to level six.”
Applebridge was recently placed fourth in the country as an SME employer for apprentices, but Greg Chapman said that was only after investment and support at every level of his company.
“You've got to have that backing by your senior management team and your directors of the company. If it wasn't for them, then we wouldn't have a platform to work with. One key element to that is the mentors that look after our apprentices, you need these key people out on site, because they've been given up their time, when they should be working and being productive so they can give their experience and knowledge to that new apprentice.
You've got to have that backing by your senior management team and your directors of the company.
“Apprenticeships are fantastic programmes, and we wouldn't have been able to grow the company as we have if it wasn't for them. One thing I would add is that I would go right back down to the school leavers and support them to take those first steps.
“It's quite easy to recruit high level apprentices. But recruiting that low level apprentice is difficult because as a construction company, we've got sites 20 miles or 30 miles down the road and that lower level ground worker or bricklayer has come straight from school, doesn't have a driving licence, can't find that support to get to a certain site and relies on us to taxi him of her there.
Grant Glendinning said the region’s Net Zero ambitions made apprenticeships and the right skills all the more vital.
“Here at Teesworks Skills Academy, we're sitting right next door to somewhere that's described as a Net Zero hotspot, a hydrogen superplace, and we're certainly gearing up for that.
“In April we're opening our Clean Energy Education Hub, which has been specifically planned with an eye on the future opportunities that Teesworks will bring to local residents. Our apprenticeships will be absolutely pivotal to the development of that site.
“They are a really exciting option along with a mix of other training programmes - we can't forget T-levels, which are the ‘new kid on the block’. I hope that as these programmes change, there'll be a real holistic choice for the inward investing employers.”
Active Financial Planning was supported through the Skills for Growth programme to get training for its team, and Karl Pemberton said clear communication about those options was a key factor:
“I would honestly say that this time last year, I wouldn't have necessarily known what was available and the breadth of those programmes, but now we have accessed funding and training literally from the top level, all the way down through every aspect of our business.
“Twenty five of the 30 within our team have gone through some form of funded training from around September last year and all of our back office and support functions have gone through the culture of professional development.
“For me, that word ‘culture’ typifies how we try and look at it as a business. It's about being the sort of place where you want to continuously self develop, and we can teach knowledge in our industries and our businesses - but then blend actual skills with that wider knowledge.
“Like every other business out there in terms of recruitment has been a challenge. Over the last few years. Yes, we could go and recruit more people to do the job. But ultimately, we can't find those people. So we have to teach our people how to be better at doing their job, so that they can potentially fulfil more and be more productive and we are reaping the rewards from that now.”
Sharon Lane was the perfect person to complete the panel, starting her career as an apprentice herself at TTE in South Bank.
She told us: “In the late Nineties when I did my apprenticeship NVQs were just coming out. So I was one of the first people to do the new competency qualifications and the modern apprenticeship and then was able to go to university part time and get qualified. There have been a lot of changes since then.
It's about understanding that the apprenticeship is your base layer, and then how else can you build the skills that you need
“There is no doubt young people definitely still want to do it. With the parents, sometimes there can be a bit of negativity about this route. But I feel like we're past that and that everybody understands Uni is not for everybody.
“But at some stages, I think there's nowhere near as much flexibility as there used to be in the 1990s. You could go to Longlands college, get your City & Guilds and apart from that your learning was all specific to the job that you were going to do which meant you came out of your apprenticeship able to hit the floor running.
“But FE now is restrained, it's inflexible, it has to deliver certain things.
“And for SMEs, it's about understanding that much as colleges would like to provide the absolute bespoke qualification for your apprentice, it's not going to happen. So it's about understanding that the apprenticeship is your base layer, and then how else can you build the skills that you need for your people?”
The need for improvement of the Apprenticeship Levy was also made clear by the panel.
Employers with an annual pay bill of over £3 million must pay the Levy, charged at 0.5% of their total annual pay bill. Large employers can choose to transfer up to 25% of their levy funds each year to other businesses, to help pay for their apprenticeship training and assessment.
Sharon Lane said: “There's a general consensus amongst all the industry bodies, that it's been an absolute disaster because it hasn't done what it set out to do and the North East has been the hardest hit and school leavers have been the hardest hit.
“The most popular apprenticeship now in England is a generic team leader qualification. And I'm all for upskilling everybody all the way through the business, but when we're talking about needing those core skills - those technical skills that our businesses in the Tees Valley rely upon - it isn't working.”
Grant Glendinning agreed, saying: “I think the whole funding system, the enrolment requirements and the kind of concept of the levy all needs to be re examined so that we can stop this attrition of apprenticeship starts that we're seeing.
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“We need to prevent a wholesale move to the levy being used as a kind of CPD pot within larger companies to train existing older workers in high level skills that arguably could be funded some other way, and try to route more of this funding to school leavers and young people who need training in in their work to start meaningful careers.”
That passion and deep experience of the panel at the TVCA event is a keystone for the future of the region. We clearly have the skills to make this pipeline work, and with a few new sections welded in along its length to keep apprenticeships at its core it will be providing the region’s workforce for generations.
- The event was delivered as part of the Skills for Growth programme. This is a free resource for Tees Valley SMEs connecting them to a range of training and skills organisations, support services and local authorities to help upskill their current workforce.
- Skills for Growth is part-funded by the European Social Fund as part of the 2014–2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.
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