Ethical Skills & Training to deliver 10,000 apprenticeships

Careering ahead: Ethical Skills & Training to deliver 10,000 apprenticeships

Workplace development specialists, Ethical Skills & Training (EST) has been awarded a major new contract to provide 10,000 apprenticeships to 18 – 25+ year olds across the UK.

The National Apprenticeship Service contract will see EST delivering apprenticeships across the health and fitness, hair care, transport, food service and hospitality and retail sectors over the next 18 months.

Working with operators to help ‘up-skill’ their workforce, EST’s unique apprenticeship+ programme will focus on both the technical and ‘soft’ skills necessary to ensure that the newly skilled employees will help meet identified organisational goals.  “For us, training is not just about ticking boxes,” said EST’s CEO, Elaine Barrett.  “We believe in a different model.  We believe that our apprenticeships must deliver real value both to the business and to the learner.  We believe that our apprenticeships must have clearly identified targets and deliverables which are agreed at the outset, and we believe in measuring and evaluating what we have delivered at the end of the programme.

Barrett adds:  “For us it’s not about gaining a ‘piece of paper’ at the end, but about helping to turn raw talent into a corporate asset.”

The apprenticeship+ model sees EST working closely with employers at the start of the programme to understand their ‘corporate’ goals and objectives.  These insights are then used to develop a tailored, Structured Learning Programme for the learners, to ensure that their behaviours and skills meet the organisation’s goals and that there are real and tangible benefits for both the company and themselves.  Once the apprenticeship has been completed, EST then reviews its outcomes to ensure that it achieved what it set out to do, for both the business and the individual.

Learners will be able to choose from a range of bespoke apprenticeship+ programmes as part of this new initiative, including Fitness Instruction, Personal Training, Leisure Management through to Customer Service, Business Administration and Operational Services.  On average the programmes are run over six months and are delivered by EST’s team of 100 dedicated assessors who are based across the country.

Each apprenticeship+ programme combines four key elements, irrespective of the subject title.  These comprise technical skills development, soft skills coaching, mentoring and development of employability skills.  

The EST approach is a very different model to learning and it is this which is key to its success in winning the new contract.  The company has already proved its value to the health & fitness industry via the high profiled TAG programme – EST developed and delivered Structured Learning Programmes to disadvantaged young people via its link with the leisure industry charity. 

 “We have a proven track record in getting young people into meaningful employment through our apprenticeships,” continues Barrett.  “We are challenging the traditional perception of what apprenticeships can deliver: taking it away from being just about the qualification at the end of the programme and really focusing on corporate goals, measured delivery and final evaluation and accountability.  For us it is about adding value to the businesses we work with, as well as delivering sustainable, enjoyable and productive employment to the young people on our programmes.”

This new contract commenced in the first quarter of 2011 and EST will be working with businesses across a wide range of industries to identify employer partners for its apprenticeship+ learners.