The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today sent a rallying cry for more small and medium sized businesses in the capital to create apprenticeships and help drive London out of recession.
To help small firms to take on an apprentice, the Mayor secured £6m from the government to officer a cash incentive of £1,500 available from the National Apprenticeship Service. In addition, firms can receive up to 100 per cent funding towards their training costs.
In London, small and medium sized companies are already responsible for the majority of the 63,700 opportunities that have been created since 2010. The Mayor has set a target to deliver 100,000 apprenticeships by the end of this year.
He now wants to ensure that even more small to medium sized employers, who are driving this amazing success, are aware of the support available so they can reap these benefits as well as further boost jobs and growth in London.
The Mayor’s campaign is particularly focused on companies in sectors not traditionally linked to apprenticeships and big business is also playing its part, with employers ranging from the Football Association to music giant Sony and HSBC all signing up. Apart from providing hope and opportunity to thousands of job seekers who, through the skills they develop, often secure permanent roles, these companies are also benefiting from securing highly motivated employees who can help build a loyal workforce in the longer term.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:
“London’s small and medium sized employers are the backbone of the economy and critical to creating jobs and powering us out of recession. In the last 18 months they have really stepped up to the plate, delivering thousands of new apprenticeships across the city. However, there are many more still out there who are yet to benefit from this win-win situation and I urge them to find out about the financial support available and commit to taking on an apprentice."
Vic Grimes, Divisional Apprenticeships Director – London & South East of the National Apprenticeship Service said: “The Mayor’s rallying cry to businesses highlights the importance that employers and business organisations across the capital place on Apprenticeships. I’m delighted that the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) is working closely with the Mayor to ensure that employers are able to recruit high calibre apprentices and source the quality training their organisations need. We provide the expertise to make the process easier for employers and our website apprenticeships.org.uk provides comprehensive information for prospective apprentices and employers. This is a challenging target but is essential for the future of our young people and the continued growth of small and medium sized businesses in the capital. “
Tim Campbell, the Mayor’s Ambassador for Skills and Enterprise said: “The best preparation for the economic recovery that small businesses can do is invest in talent. Apprenticeships bring that talent in and help small business owners retain and nurture it as they grow making choosing an apprentice not charitable but a smart business decision.
Roy Hardy, Director at Coreco, an independent Mortgage Brokerage said, “The Apprenticeship Scheme has been a really positive experience for us and I would highly recommend it to other SME’s, whatever sector you happen to be in. Recruitment in our industry is very tough at the moment and we desperately need to attract some new talent. This scheme enables us to train the new people in what we believe is the right way of doing things from day one , whilst the experience they get will help them to move into a permanent role with us or act as a spring board to other things.
"There are many excellent young people who really deserve a chance to get into a forward thinking business, such as Coreco, and we could not be happier with those we have working with us. They really do have the potential to be stars of the future. We also benefit from having fresh ideas and a totally different outlook which is essential to take into account when looking to grow our business further”.
Notes to editors
1. London's businesses should visit the National Apprenticeships Service website at www.apprenticeships.gov.uk to find out more about how apprenticeships can work for their business and how to go about recruiting an apprentice and to draw down the cash incentive.
2. The AGE Grant of £1,500 is available to small to medium sized businesses with less than 250 members of staff recruiting an apprentice aged 16-24. It is only available to businesses who haven’t recruited an apprentice in the last three years and the offer is limited to up to three grants per employer.
3. London’s small and medium sized businesses are responsible for around 60 per cent of the 63,700 apprenticeship opportunities created through the Mayor’s campaign since it was launched in August 2010.
4. Besides boosting the number of apprentices, the Mayor is committed to ensuring that every avenue for job creation available to him is fully exploited.
His plans to build 55,000 affordable homes between 2011-15, as part of his revised Housing Strategy, will create over 100,000 jobs and he recently called on capital's boroughs and public sector bodies to follow his lead and use their huge buying power to create as many jobs, apprenticeship and skills training opportunities as possible. In 2010-11 the GLA Group generated over 1,000 jobs for unemployed Londoners within its contractor workforce and has invested £300,000 to ensure a similar amount this year.
Through his Outer London Fund the Mayor is investing £50m into capital's town centres and high streets, helping to boost economic activity and increase employment in areas not benefiting from major infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the Olympic and Paralympics Games. And, in the wake of the August disturbances, a further £70m is being allocated to regenerate those areas affected, attracting new jobs and businesses, with the Mayor ensuring that Londoners benefit from jobs in the construction and beyond.
In boroughs directly benefitting from the 2012 Games, thousands of jobs have been created including 10,000 at the new Westfield Stratford, 2,000 of which went to long-term unemployed, while a £13m Host Borough Employment and Skills project - to help people improve their skills and to find work during the Games and beyond – has already helped round 9,000 people to improve their employability, with more than 2,600 offered jobs with contractors for next year.
5. Apprentices – Key facts
There is more demand for some apprenticeships places than there is for Oxford University places. On average, there are 16 applications for every apprenticeship vacancy.
80 per cent of those who employ apprentices agree that they make the workplace more productive.
Nearly 90 per cent of employers who employ apprentices believe that Apprenticeships lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce.
Nearly 60 per cent of employers report that training apprentices is more cost-effective than hiring pre-skilled staff and believe that Apprenticeships lead to lower overall training costs.
Over 80 per cent of employers who have taken on apprentices now rely on their Apprenticeships programme to provide the skilled workers that they need for the future