E-skills Seek Apprenticeship Solution to IT Skills Gap

·  IT Gold Standard Apprenticeships from E-skills - 92% of first cohort go to small and medium-sized employers

·  UK IT Association - the voice of this sector - congratulates E-skills on this success and recommends the scheme

·  EU's Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs - we're 700,000 short on recruits for the next 3 years!

With the IT sector in the EU projected to have a shortage of 900,000 professionals by 2015 it is becoming increasingly apparent that more needs to be done to attract skilled workers into the IT industry. The UK IT Association (UKITA) has been encouraged by the European Commission’s creation of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, but it is still clear that if the skill gap is to be closed than the SME sector, the biggest IT employers in the UK, will have to take direct action.

It is for that reason that we are supporting e-skills apprenticeship programmes, and more specifically their proposal to initiate a managed apprentice service.

E-skills have a history of training apprentices and UKITA applaud the fact that 92% of the first group of apprentices trained ending up working for SMEs. Now e-skills are seeking feedback into plans to offer a managed apprenticeship service which is designed to remove the obstacles that prevent employers from hiring apprentices, with the dual benefit of allowing employers to mould young IT professional into understanding their company culture, and giving youth’s access to the best possible start to their careers. With the increase in student fee’s we feel that the next generation of workers are increasingly going to be looking at alternatives to a University Education, and the Coalition Government is currently considering giving new freedoms to specific employment sectors to set their own standards for apprenticeships. With that in mind UKITA are backing the e-skills managed apprenticeship scheme and we hope that our members and the wider SME community will support the scheme.

E-skills have been approached by a number of employers who are interested in apprentices but who would like more support and collaboration to make this easier for themselves and to maximise the benefit for all parties.

To this end e-skills are proposing the managed apprenticeship service and they believe that a collaboration between employers and e-skills could:

·  Overcome headcount restrictions to employing an apprentice, by enabling employers to offer apprentices jobs on a fixed term basis – with an option for recruitment into permanent jobs at the employers’ choice.

·  Ensure consistent, high quality training covering the content the employer wants (including options for globally-recognised IT qualifications and degrees).

·  Give the apprentice a richer experience through an apprentice community, including contact with apprentices in other companies and exposure to more than one employer).

·  Provide support to those managing apprentices as a cross-employer community.

·  Offer access to high quality, pre-screened candidates.

·  Take responsibility for securing and managing government contributions to training costs.

Employers would need to make some commitments, but these are all in line with usual employment commitments. Employers would be expected to provide an appropriate job for an agreed period of time, to support the apprentice in their work and to pay an agreed fee for the apprentice’s time. All commitments that a company would make with any new employee.

An additional bonus to employers is that the E-skills managed service would play a significant role in the selection process to ensure that any candidates have already been pre-vetted to ensure they are suitable

Plans for Industrial Partnership

The provision for apprenticeships is also being supported by plans for an Industrial Partnership for the Information Economy which is being developed by a growing group of major employers, including Accenture, BT, Blitz Games, Cisco, HP, Microsoft, Tata Consulting Services, O2, John Lewis, Direct Line Group Government, the Metropolitan Police, Morrisons, National Grid and UBS.

The aim is to accelerate growth across the economy through the faster creation and better exploitation of technology. They are collaborating to create end-to-end skills solutions to underpin global leadership in strategic skills and technology-enabled innovation, and to help employers, especially SMEs, more readily secure the skills they need to grow.

The Industrial Partnership for the Information Economy is keen to work collaboratively with anyone who could benefit from their support, and have asked e-skills UK to co-ordinate their work. If you are interested in further information, would like to get involved, or keep us informed about your own plans, please contact e-skills UK on techskillspartnership@e-skills.com.

More information is available at www.e-skills.com.

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