Apprenticeship and school leaver programmes 2014

Sue Husband, Director of Apprenticeships and Delivery Service, Skills Funding Agency

• Changes to funding and standards
• Future reforms and outcomes from the Richard Review

• Supporting disadvantaged youth and helping bring down youth unemployment
• Improving employability skills through pre-apprenticeship training
• Apprenticeships and progression pathways post traineeship
• Government funding

Mike Thompson, ‎Head of Early Careers, Barclays Bank

• Different models of apprenticeships and school leaver programmes
• How does funding work?
• Partnering with a training provider or university
• Business benefits

Chris Starling, Head of Apprenticeships, Virgin Media

• Marketing and selection methods
• Setting the frameworks
• Getting buy-in across the organisation

Rebecca Plant, Head of Apprentice and Graduate Programmes, Capgemini

Session 08: Questions and discussion with the speakers

• Create a blended approach to apprenticeships, professional qualifications and degrees
• Engage high achievers on your apprenticeship programme and create higher education pathways for all
• Ensure universities are involved in design of apprenticeships and progression pathways

James Hammill, Director, BPP Professional Apprenticeships

Session 10: Questions and discussion with the speakers

Session 11: Knowledge share networking session

• Setting KPI’s and evaluating the programme
• How quickly does it take for apprentices to reach set targets?
• ROI from early careers

Panellists:

Colin Campbell-Austin, Head of Talent and People Development, Telegraph Media Group
Claire Paul, ‎Head of Entry Level Talent, BBC
Tom Hadley, Director of Policy & Professional Services, REC

• Taking a different approach to recruitment
• Offering structure and support

Katerina Rudiger, Head of Skills and Policy Campaigns, CIPD

Sue Husband is the Executive Director for Apprenticeships and Delivery Services for the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), an executive agency of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The SFA is responsible for £4.1 billion of funding each year, supporting skills training through contracts with employers, and over 1,000 colleges and private training organisations in England. Their job is to fund and promote adult further education (FE) and skills training in England, including traineeships and apprenticeships, in a way that supports economic growth.

Sue is responsible for the apprenticeships division, ensuring the delivery of high-quality apprenticeships for employers and individuals through the agency’s two customer-facing services: The National Apprenticeship Service and the National Careers Service. This includes the promotion of apprenticeships; the provision of a responsive, high-quality service to employers; working with partners to improve the design and delivery of high-quality apprenticeships; championing and supporting traineeships as part of the apprenticeship family; and the promotion of the WorldSkills UK skills competitions to employers and young people.

Before joining the SFA, Sue spent 26 years working for McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd. Her most recent role was as Head of Education, where she had responsibility for McDonald’s Education programmes, from apprenticeships through to foundation degrees.

Tony leads on managing the large employers and national providers, taking on industrial partnerships and employer ownership.

Tony and his team’s priorities are to maximise access amongst employers to agency funding, to ensure a growth in apprenticeships and traineeships.

They are also responsible for ensuring the overall delivery of government priorities, through the largest national providers, and intervening where required to mitigate any risk to funds, delivery of government priorities or skills provision.

Mike has been working in Barclays for over 24 years in a variety of frontline and support leadership roles across the business.

His past five years have been in HR, where he has built up extensive experience implementing management and leadership development programmes, employee engagement programmes and more recently, managing the development of Barclays learning and development curriculum.

His recent projects include the roll out of the Leadership Excellence Programme across RBB (retail and business banking) and the delivery of the “Be the Change” employee engagement programme also across the global retail bank.

Mike currently manages a number of award winning early careers programmes including the Barclays apprenticeship programme and Barclays degree programme that won the CIPD Best Talent Programme 2012.

He is passionate about developing young talent and tackling diversity and equality issues as well as providing meaningful solutions that address youth unemployment.

Chris joined the cable industry in the late 90’s as an entry level employee. He worked his way up the management line before getting involved in the launch of Virgin Media’s first apprenticeship program in 2008.

Chris now heads up a team that manages all apprentice frameworks across all areas of Virgin Media and was involved in the steering group that lead to Virgin Media launching its first traineeship in August 2013.

Chris is passionate about youth engagement and has seen first hand the results that are possible from investing in early years career pathways.

Becky has been working at Capgemini for 8 years, starting out as the PA to the UK CTO before making the career leap in to HR. In January 2012 Becky became programme manager for Capgemini’s Higher Apprentice Programme, and has progressed to take over all responsibility for the Graduate and Apprentice programmes. Becky also sits on the Digital Trailblazers Steering Group as part of the IT sectors apprenticeship reforms.

Becky has built up extensive knowledge within apprenticeships and higher education. Campaigning tirelessly that apprenticeships and higher education can work together, Capgemini launched their two BSC degrees with Aston University in March 2014, cementing her belief that lifelong learning is possible combining vocational education and Higher Education.

With over 200 higher apprentices on programme within Capgemini there is not much that Becky hasn’t seen, encountered or experienced when bringing apprentices in the world of work and she has brought those learning’s in to the everyday working of Capgemini’s HR & L&D teams to deliver new ways of operating.

She is passionate about creating the right environment for young people within business and works hard to tackle the gap between education and employment, so that young people have every opportunity to realise their potential and go as far as they possibly can.

James is the leader of two of the fastest growing business units within the BPP Professional Education Group, BPP Professional Apprenticeships and BPP Financial Services.

He has been working in the professional education business for the past 12 years starting out as a tutor for the Financial Training Company before taking on a series of management positions and eventually moving to BPP three years ago.

For the past three years James has worked with some of the leading employers in the UK to help them professionalise their workforce through establishing apprenticeship programmes, enhancing graduate schemes, providing professional qualification training and degrees for existing staff as well as supporting professional development.

With the continual need to professional the workforce and the growing demand for early career talent there has never been a more exciting time to be involved in professional training and apprenticeships.

Katerina is the Head of Skills and Policy Campaigns at the CIPD. She leads the policy campaigns team, which works to turn policy into action, to positively influence employer behaviour. She has developed and leads on the CIPD’s learning to work programme that aims to tackle youth unemployment by increasing employer engagement with young people.

She is responsible for the CIPD’s employer youth volunteering programmes, including Steps Ahead Mentoring and the CIPD’s collaboration with the Inspiring the Future initiative. Katerina also leads on the CIPD’s approach to skills policy issues.

Previously, Katerina worked as a policy analyst for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) where she led and produced their policy review on skills utilisation and high-performance working.