Skills Minister has today (20 January 2017)
announced that the Department for Education (DfE) is setting the public
sector a target of recruiting 200,000 more apprentices by 2020.
This reform will create thousands of quality opportunities in the
public sector, giving more people the chance to launch or develop
their career, whether they are saving lives with the NHS, working
in our vital local government services or working in a police
force protecting the public.
Today’s announcement builds on the government’s commitment to
deliver 3 million apprenticeships by 2020, by requiring at least
2.3% of the workforce in public bodies in England to be
apprentices.
This new duty, which was brought in as part of the
2016 Enterprise Act, will
apply to public sector bodies with 250 or more employees and is
set to be implemented from 1 April 2017.
Skills Minister said:
We are committed to breaking down barriers and creating a
ladder of opportunity for people everywhere. For our public
sector to be the very best in the world, we need talented and
ambitious people of all ages and from every background.
Businesses across the country have well and truly got behind
apprenticeships. Now it is time to ensure the public sector
reaps the benefits of apprenticeships and young people get the
opportunities they deserve.
The new target is being championed by the Civil Service, which
has pledged an unprecedented increase in apprentices, to achieve
30,000 apprenticeship starts in England by 2020, with an
expectation to see similar levels of growth in the UK Home Civil
Service, outside of England.
Setting these expectations for larger employers in the public
sector is essential to give people the skills they need to
succeed and enable public sector employers to deliver the skilled
workforce for the future.
Notes to editors
- Apprenticeships policy is a devolved matter and the duty
therefore applies to England only. Where public bodies operate
across the UK (or internationally), the target will be set as a
certain proportion of their England-based workforce, based on the
primary work location of each employee.
- Read the response to the public
sector consultation ‘Public sector apprenticeship
targets’.
DfE marketing
apprentice case study
Nieve-Marie Oakman, 18-year-old marketing apprentice for the
Department for Education, said:
My family and friends were all supportive of my choice to do
any apprenticeship. My parents knew despite applying for
university I was unsure if that was the route I wanted to take
to gain my career in marketing. They were, however, slightly
wary my apprenticeship wouldn’t offer the career development a
degree would but were reassured when shown the great support
the Department for Education offer me.
