Apprenticeship use increases in the Thames Valley as fight for talent intensifies

As National Apprenticeship Week (7-13 February) gets underway, new research from Grant Thornton UK LLP shows that the Thames Valley’s mid-market is increasingly making use of apprenticeships as a means of upskilling their people at all levels.  

With job vacancies and resignations at record highs, Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker* survey shows that there’s an upward trend of apprenticeship use in the mid-market which is set to expand in 2022. 52% of respondents in the Thames Valley region agreed that more of their people will be trained using apprenticeships this year than in 2021. 

Employers saw additional strategic benefits to apprenticeships with half (50%) of the business leaders surveyed saying that formal development supports employee wellbeing and more than a third (36%) agreed that apprenticeships had helped to improve social mobility in their business.

The study found that mid-market organisations in the Thames Valley are now using apprenticeships at all levels of the business from entry level to senior management. Nearly half of those surveyed (48%) said that the Apprenticeship Levy had been a motivating factor in the increased use.    

This growing use of apprenticeships in the Thames Valley mirrors the national picture. From the 601 UK-wide respondents to Grant Thornton’s latest Business Outlook Tracker* survey, all but one business said that they currently use apprenticeships to develop their people. This has increased from a similar study conducted by the firm in 2018**, when 86% of mid-market respondents said they used apprenticeships in their organisation.   

Jim Rogers, practice leader for Grant Thornton in the Thames Valley, said: “With job vacancies and attrition levels reaching record highs, many businesses in the Thames Valley are facing a real struggle to attract and retain talent. To manage this challenge, many employers are turning to apprenticeship courses, as they provide a flexible, versatile and highly effective way to develop and attract skilled individuals. 

“The agile nature of apprenticeships means that businesses are being ever more strategic with how they implement them in order to address important issues. We’ve seen this range from utilising apprenticeships to improve diversity in the workforce, achieving sustainable recruitment and replacing traditional graduate programmes with highly desirable qualifications. The ability to tailor apprenticeship courses to specific requirements is especially valuable and has seen businesses grow in-demand, valuable skills that their organisation requires, such as digital, finance and data analysis skills.

“Since the pandemic began, businesses have come to recognise that while they need to upskill their workforce to grow, there needs to be cost effective solutions in place to achieve this. This is why the Apprenticeship Levy has become an integrated part of Learning and Development funding for firms across the Thames Valley over the last few years, as it provides full funding for qualifications up to master’s degree level.”   

As a leading employer of apprenticeships, Grant Thornton has long championed the benefits they can offer. Around 20% of Grant Thornton’s UK workforce are currently using apprenticeships for development and it also partners with leading training and education providers to deliver high quality, Levy funded, development programmes with practical application from the outset.