To meet current and future demand for technicians, more employers must be persuaded to take on apprentices. We are supporting research and pilot projects to ensure apprenticeships meet industry’s needs and to increase the number of STEM apprentices.

The UK is currently unable to meet its demand for technicians, and that demand is only set to grow.  Our future economic prosperity depends on making technical education work and ensuring a flow of individuals with the knowledge and skills needed by industry.

Apprenticeships have a key role to play in this.  A good apprenticeship sees an apprentice gain technical knowledge and skills through a learning provider, typically an FE college, while an employer gives the apprentice opportunities to put those skills into action and build practical experience.

Large STEM-based employers have traditionally taken on significant numbers of engineering apprentices, and major firms run successful and very popular apprenticeship schemes.  However, there is no real history of science apprentices.  Furthermore, it is not the major firms but the small and medium-sized ones that make up the bulk of the UK’s manufacturing sector, with more than 70% of the manufacturing firms in the country having 10 employees or fewer.  There is much weaker demand for apprentices from these smaller employers, who often cite their limited resources and the bureaucracy associated with current schemes as reasons for not investing in apprentices.

Gatsby is supporting research and pilot projects to try to help smaller employers overcome these obstacles, make apprenticeships more relevant to industry’s needs, and increase the number of STEM-based apprentices.

• We are supporting research by Kings College to explore the role of Apprenticeship Training Agencies (ATAs) in increasing employer engagement in apprenticeships. The research will examine various aspects of the nature and operation of such schemes, including: the type of organisations that are running ATAs; the number of apprentices who have been taken on; the kinds of frameworks under which apprentices are being trained; the number, and type, of organisations that have chosen to participate in the schemes as host employers; and the factors that have influenced employers in deciding whether or not to become involved with apprenticeships via an ATA.
• We are enabling the Tamar Science Park to employ seven apprentices who are ‘loaned’ out to the micro-businesses that are based on the Science Park. At the end of the loan period, the businesses have the opportunity to employ the apprentices as permanent employees. In this way, the micro-businesses are able to ‘try out’ the apprentices without the usual associated risks and bureaucratic workload.
• The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) already runs a first rate scheme for apprentices. The cutting-edge research environment of the Council laboratories allows apprentices to flourish in an atmosphere of innovation and problem-solving. We are supporting the Council to explore the possibility of extending this apprenticeship scheme to the businesses that are located on the Innovation Campuses which are developing alongside the research establishments.

It is clear that to meet current and future demand for technicians we need to persuade more employers that taking on apprentices is to their advantage.  In order to do this, we must ensure that apprenticeships meet their needs and that managing the paperwork around apprenticeships is as straightforward as possible.