Julie Alberg (née Mills) Class of 1985

reflects the make-up of Barclays’ customer base.” The programme targets anyone over the age of 24 who has been out of work for 12 months or more. They require no prior experience in banking. After a three-week pre-employment course, successful candidates go on to complete a 12- to 18-month apprenticeship delivering financial services in-branch or over the phone. From there, apprentices are able to gain banking qualifications through the Chartered Banker Institute and progress to more senior roles.

The Barclays programme has been running since 2015. It has been a very successful model to support adults, particularly the longer-term unemployed, back into employment.

Making the system more flexible

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee was launched by the UK Government in September 2020. It is an attempt to provide adults with skills that are valued by employers and the chance to study flexibly, in a time and place that suits them. The Prime Minister promised reforms include a commitment to increasing apprenticeship opportunities. It aims to make the apprenticeship structure more flexible and increase funding for SMEs taking on apprentices.

Sarah Kirby, Group Head of Organisation Design & HR Strategy at Zurich Insurance Company Ltd, commented that this goes some way to solving a key challenge with the Apprenticeship Levy: “The main hurdle with the Levy in the UK is that the criteria are too narrow and onerous, which addresses only a skills gap in one’s current role. In the context of the Future of Work, we should be thinking beyond school leavers and considering people at all stages of their careers.”

Apprenticeships represent collaboration between formal learning providers and businesses. Unlike other forms of learning, an apprentice is in paid employment and is being paid throughout the learning process. This makes apprenticeships the most sensible way to support people to change careers or move out of unemployment. These are two challenges facing the country as we move beyond coronavirus and navigate the fourth industrial revolution - a new era that builds and extends the impact of digitisation in new and unanticipated ways.

What’s more, five years after completion, the average Higher Technical Apprentice earns more than the average graduate. This is one of the motivations for the government’s move to facilitating lifelong learning: apprenticeships offer opportunities that are obscured by the false dichotomy in public imagination between the idea of “practical” versus “academic” education.

Apprenticeships and the fourth industrial revolution

Traditional education cannot adapt fast enough to equip students with the knowledge, skills and experience they need to operate newly emerging technologies and fulfil emerging business needs. Apprenticeships can.

Reskilling through apprenticeships is a way to fill the skills gaps that will occur in the near and longer-term future. This includes those gaps that we may not yet have predicted or are not yet capable of preparing for.

The jobs landscape will continue to change as technology advances. The apprenticeship model offers a strong structure to establish collaboration between employers and learning providers to ensure that these gaps continue to be addressed. What’s more, apprenticeships can also ensure that workers of all ages and at all stages in their careers have an opportunity to transition into emerging fields of work, without taking on the huge risk and financial burden of retraining at a university.

So, if you are motivated to study for a more senior role or explore a new career path, it might be worth considering how an apprenticeship could help support your own lifelong learning.

Julie Alberg is a director at Aptem Ltd. Founded in 2009, the company produces innovative technology products that support the delivery of complex, regulated skills and employability programmes. Aptem’s technology enables organisations to deliver programmes that help people find rewarding work and equip themselves with the skills they need to progress.