The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has produced a report – ‘The Apprenticeship Journey’ about the potential advantages of taking on apprentices in small businesses. The FSB promotes the interests of small business across the UK and represents over 200,000 members.

Their key findings are:

Apprenticeships are not clearly defined by the government, which adds to its poor ‘brand image’.
Businesses should have the autonomy to control funding to focus on what is most important – the apprentice’s training and development needs.
Schools need to engage with small businesses to promote apprenticeships as having equal importance as vocational education. This includes an increased focus on providing employability training and work-related learning, and liaising with small business to mentor and offer careers advice through open forums in schools.
The National Apprenticeship Service is too confusing and small businesses are unable to engage with the programme. A tailor-made service by the NAS to address small business needs to be introduced.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded from the FSB website from the link below:http://www.fsb.org.uk/policy/Publications.

If your business is interested in taking on an apprentice – please contact our Apprenticeship Recruitment team on 0121 707 0550.