Young people are our future ! Apprenticeships at South Holland District Council Madge Marshall-Brown OD Manager – Learning Development and Culture (South Holland District Council)

Taking on Apprentices SHDC is committed to increasing the number of young people working for the Council As part of this strategy at SHDC we are increasing the number of apprentices At present we have 7 which we would like to increase in the future

A variety of apprentice jobs Our 7 apprentices are placed in a variety of different jobs. They are working in: Carpentry and Joinery Plumbing Bricklaying Accountancy We recognise that Apprenticeships are relevant to a variety of roles not just Business Admin.

It worked for me! Melanie Newell is a Carpentry & Joinery Apprentice “My job involves a variety of different things, like repairing empty houses so another family can move in, to response repairs. I am working with the community and meeting a variety of different people which is giving me more confidence.”

And me! Claire Burton, Business Consultant “I came to SHDC with 10 GCSE’s in I was funded by the Council to do NVQ’s Level 2 and 3 and went on to do a Modern Apprenticeship in Business Admin, which was a ‘first’ for the Council and the area. I then achieved an HNC in Business & Finance followed by Post Graduate study leading to full CIPD status”.

Why did we do it? year olds within SHDC currently make up 6.5% of the workforce We have 33.9% of staff who are 51 years of age or older Resulting in problems for succession planning

Support from Providers We have accessed government funded training through Boston College and Anglia Training and are keen to work with local providers in the future Whilst there have been ‘pockets’ of this type of training in some service units, we are now co-ordinating & centralising in order to promote across all services.

Skills Pledge Although we are not yet committed to the Skills Pledge, SHDC recognises that Apprenticeships will help us in this area We are also looking at Level 2 qualifications in some of the hard to reach groups e.g. refuse and recycling

The future … We are promoting apprenticeships of every kind through a new policy and changes to our recruitment process. The recruitment process will require every manager advertising a vacancy to first consider an Apprenticeship. If an Apprenticeship is not appropriate then the business case should say why.

Cont’d … We also need to recruit and train people to deliver our services in the future As an IiP employer we are committed to developing the potential of all our staff not simply new recruits We have linked up to the Care Leavers Apprenticeship Scheme via LCC and currently have one Apprentice in Housing (Business Admin) with another due to start shortly working as a Bricklayer We have also signed up to Positive about Young People

We are starting small but intend to grow!

Thank you for listening