Foundation Apprenticeships give learners firm footing as everyone benefits

Further education colleges have a vital role to play in responding directly to the government’s industrial strategy, plugging the skills gap and ensuring that the huge industrial project pipeline in the UK can be fulfilled and the significant economic opportunity can be realised. Apprenticeships are the lifeblood of making this happen; they rely on strong partnerships between academic institutions and industry, just like the strong history of collaborations forged by The City of Liverpool College.

Working together, the College and its industrial partners form curricula that equip learners with the skills they need to hit the ground running in their first job. One need only look at our state-of-the-art heat pump training centre to see how we are producing the next generation of engineers who in this case will keep our homes and workplaces warm in years to come as the technology continues to increase in uptake.

We have recently taken the next step with our apprenticeship offering by introducing Foundation Apprenticeships (FAs) as part of our core belief in turning disadvantage to advantage. These shorter courses with great financial incentives for employers are laser-focused on creating more opportunities for young people in the four key sectors of Construction, Digital, Manufacturing and Healthcare.

Taken by young people from school-leaving age up to 25, the FA has all the advantages afforded by regular apprenticeships. Learners can learn the basics of a job to see if it is the career path they want to take before gaining practical, real-world experience. Alongside this, they gain an industry-recognised qualification that, when the time comes, helps them make a smoother transition into the world of full-time work with their improved employability.

However, the FA is shorter than its regular counterpart at Level 2 and can be completed in less than a year. Upon completion, and in agreement with their employer, there is then the potential for further training for the learner in the form of an advanced apprenticeship, or paid employment.

While this is a terrific opportunity for the learner, employers are also served well by FAs. They are incentivised with generous grants to offer these programmes of study, which they receive in return for providing young learners with the opportunity.

They can also build their future talent pipelines around these young people who learn, very specifically, how their particular company works. This has the side benefit of reducing recruitment costs too.

We are excited to be among the first training providers offering the FA in Building Services Engineering as the first stage of a rapid increase and broadening of the provision in this sector. Marshall Thermo-King, a key partner of the College in the refrigeration sector, have joined with us to convert the FA in this area from a vision to a reality.

Our apprenticeship offering as a whole will benefit from these new, shorter standards as employers are encouraged to invest in the next generation who will keep their companies working by offering more opportunities.