Ofsted outstanding training provider celebrates first national achiever after pioneering new apprenticeship programme

An Ofsted outstanding training provider has celebrated its first national completer of its newly pioneered Payroll Assistant Manager Level 5 apprenticeship programme.

The programme was designed by West Midlands based training provider, MBKB’s own payroll team.

Working to ensure a high-quality learning experience at a Level 5 qualification, the MBKB team created the apprenticeship to be the first to mix advanced payroll skills and knowledge with management development.

Previous programmes divided these skills into different courses.  

A Level 5 apprenticeship is equivalent to a foundation degree and the launch of this new payroll apprenticeship comes amid the increased recognition of apprenticeships by the Government.

The programme covers a range of 12 core functions, including: analysing the payroll workload; overseeing correlations between payroll and benefits data; leading and overseeing delivery of quality assurance; managing direct responsibility for the pay and benefits calculations; as well as other important skills.

MBKB’s Level 5 tutor, Emma Millward, played a major role in developing the apprenticeship and worked with distinction-qualifying apprentice, Kerri Kingston.  

Commenting, Kerri said: “Two years of studying and applying what I had learned every day at work not only taught me so much about being a payroll assistant manager, but also how to apply myself, how to own my own development and to show that I am capable.  

“Finding out that I had passed my Level 5 Assistant Payroll Manager Apprenticeship with distinction in two of the three areas made me feel immensely proud of my achievement.”  

Celebrating the success of her student, tutor Emma Millward said: “I am extremely proud to have been part of Kerri’s journey, to also see her be the first qualified Level 5 payroll assistant manager in the UK with 2 distinctions is amazing!

“Kerri is extremely deserving of her qualification and continually demonstrated that she is not only dedicated to developing herself within the payroll sector but passionate about supporting others to achieve their goals too.”  

The apprenticeship is proving to be extremely popular with employers by advancing their payroll teams and managers, with over 150 enrolled and many more in the pipeline.  

It provides the perfect mix of advanced payroll skills and management development to bring high levels of professionalism to the payroll team and ensure they are providing their clients with advanced solutions and service.

The programme was designed by the sector for the sector and is continually updated to address the ever-changing needs.