Council welcomes Department for Education to apprenticeship event

Kate Josephs visits Rochdale Training

A senior official from the Department for Education paid a visit to Rochdale Borough Council as part of national apprenticeship celebrations.

Kate Josephs, director of funding at the Department for Education, visited the council’s Number One Riverside offices for a special event the council was hosting, with Rochdale Training and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, on access to apprenticeships from the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community. She also went on to visit Rochdale Training, the council’s apprenticeship partner to discuss the benefits of apprenticeships.

The event saw apprentices from Rochdale, Bury, Bolton and Manchester attend who gave first-hand accounts of barriers that prevent the take up of apprenticeships within ethnic minority groups.

The event was part of the ‘5 Cities Project’. Five major cities across England have pledged to work with the government to drive up apprenticeships among underrepresented groups and ensure they are accessible to individuals from all backgrounds.

Greater Manchester has pledged to boost diversity in apprenticeships and aims to deliver a 16 per cent increase in apprenticeship representation from BAME communities.

Ms Josephs is responsible for leading and overseeing the creation and operation of a single Funding Operations Centre of Excellence responsible for schools, academies and post-16 funding. She later tweeted: “They were just brilliant, amazing advocates for apprenticeships. The future's in safe hands!”

Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for children’s services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “It’s great to have senior officials from the Department for Education visit Rochdale and see how well our apprenticeship scheme is working. The event raised some important discussion points and we’re really grateful for the apprentices’ that contributed. This should go some way into making real positive change.”

In the last 12 months the council raising participation team has recruited 45 apprentices into new positions. Since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy 120 new apprenticeship posts have been recruited across the council and schools. There have also been over 300 people starting on apprenticeships across existing staff development and new opportunities.

Since the introduction of the levy in April 2017, approximately 12.8% of Rochdale Borough Council’s learners on apprenticeship programmes have been from a BAME background, above the national average of 12.3%.

90% of all those who started new apprenticeship posts with the council have moved into either an internal post, a post with an external company or moved into further education.