How skills can be unlocked through apprenticeships – earning while learning

Retaining finance and talent within the local business community through apprenticeships. By Sally Andreou – Skills Hub Manager, Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP).

(Pictured above: Oxford Biomedica – winners of Apprenticeship Employer Award 2022.)

Oxfordshire is in many ways a tale of two counties. One side is at the heart of ground-breaking research and development and cutting-edge products that are working to address many global challenges – the other is a county that has 16 areas that fall within 20% of the most deprived in England, with one region within the top 10%.

What is more concerning is that these areas are only just a couple of miles away from the oldest university in the English-speaking world – the University of Oxford.

Not everyone has the career ambition to go to university and the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Skills team has been a long-term proponent of apprenticeships, promoting them to employers and schools/colleges as an alternative option to higher education. For many, apprenticeships can off er the first foot on the career ladder, growing skills and confidence while working and being supported by the employer and training provider.

Social Contract Programme

Apprenticeships offer a fantastic way for employees to progress through various levels to a level six and seven apprenticeship, which is equivalent to a degree and masters, while offering an employer a loyal employee within a locality that has a very challenging and tight labour market with traditionally low unemployment. 

To enable more residents in Oxfordshire – including those from areas of deprivation, who have been impacted by the Covid-19 – we have created the Social Contract programme; designed to help people access good quality jobs.

Thanks to funding secured by OxLEP through the government’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund, via Oxfordshire County Council, the Social Contract is a £1.7 million programme of activity. Launched in Spring 2022, the programme includes free support and advice to employers keen to pledge their unused apprenticeship levy by investing in skills infrastructure, providing employment opportunities to local people.

Employers can pledge up to 25% of their unused Levy, rather than it being returned to HM Treasury. To date, OxLEP Skills has unlocked over £500,000 of levy pledges, with a current target of £1.3m by December 2023.

Pledges have been made from the University of Oxford – one of the largest employers in Oxfordshire – and some businesses located outside of the county who are just keen to put it to good use.

One organisation benefitting from this support is Hedena Health, a group of local health centres across Oxfordshire after receiving funding from JDE Banbury for their Nursing Associate Trainee, Bethany Lawrence.

This pledge has enabled Hedena Health to access apprenticeships as a valuable way to allow them to navigate the wider recruitment and retention problem facing this important sector.

Apprenticeship Employer award

The Oxford-based gene and cell therapy company Oxford Biomedica – who won the 2022 Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards’ large Apprenticeship employer award category, hosted by OxLEP Skills –specialises in the development of cutting-edge gene-based medicines to transform people’s lives across the world.

The company is leading the way in developing the talent of the future through its own apprenticeship scheme. The scheme provides university-accredited qualifications, real life industry experience and a salary; offering an alternative career route that sets young people apart in the job market, opening the door to careers not always accessible to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

To find out how your business can be supported to pledge unused apprenticeship levy or help fund an apprenticeship, go to:

oxlepskills.co.uk

or contact:

skills@oxfordshirelep.com