The skills gap in the UK is becoming a serious concern with university graduates failing to secure the jobs they studied for. With this in mind, there only seems to be one alternative; Apprenticeships. Apprenticeships enable people of all ages to work full time while studying and securing a qualification in their specialist field. This approach directly addresses the skills gap, taking immediate affect as more people gain employment.
What is the skills gap?
As a general rule of thumb, the skills gap is a phrase used to describe the difference between the skills that employers want compared to the skills that candidates have. In most cases employers are looking for different skills than what candidates can offer. The root of the problem lies in how we are educating young people of today. For example, schools have been slow to take head of the growing role of IT in business, which means students are not being exposed to core computing skills at a young age. Both primary and secondary schools are singularly failing to keep pace with the changing demands of modern industry, creating an obvious skills gap that threatens to stifle economic growth across the UK.
What is an apprenticeship?
An apprenticeship is a custom learning route tailored to the desired skills of both employers and candidates. Essentially, candidates are taught the technical skills they’ll need for their job with Estio, and the soft skills are taught by the employer. By approaching work-life in this way, candidates and employers are happy with the skills provided.
This is great, but why are apprenticeships vital?
Employers tend to hire candidates whose skill set are relatively in line with the skills set they’re looking for. However, employers rarely get a say in what skills their employees have. With apprenticeships, this problem is resolved as employers and employees work collaboratively to craft a skill set that they’re both happy with. Fundamentally, employers and candidates hand pick the skills that will suit each of them and help close the skills gap.
Are you interested in taking on an apprentice with Estio? Please contact our Client Engagement Team on 01133 500 333 hello@estio.co.uk or alternatively view our courses here.
