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The answer is they were all once apprentices! Sir Ian McKellen began his career as an apprentice at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre, David Beckham learnt his trade as an apprentice on the Youth Football Training Scheme at Manchester United, Ozzy Osbourne trained as an apprentice plumber and Stella McCartney secured a tailoring Apprenticeship on Savile Row before her career as a global fashion designer took off.

As many companies already know, Apprenticeships are a productive and cost effective way to help grow a sustainable workforce.  And, while your apprentices may not go on to become celebrities, they will certainly add value to your business.

To highlight the benefits of Apprenticeships for individuals, employers and the economy, Reed Learning is supporting National Apprenticeship. Approved as a main RoATP provider in January 2018, Reed Learning is currently assisting cohorts of candidates from a large retailing group to achieve their HR Levels 3 and 5 Apprenticeships, as well as working in collaboration with other training providers to help deliver HR Apprenticeship programmes.

Apprenticeships provide a great opportunity to not only attract new talent but to train existing teams – gone are the days when they were only open to school leavers and young people. There are now hundreds of Apprenticeships available to suit a range of job roles for most businesses and people of all ages can apply. With all the available data indicating the schemes improve staff retention, loyalty and job satisfaction, Apprenticeships certainly provide many business benefits.

Funding is available through the apprenticeship levy so there is a financial incentive for companies to get involved, particularly if they have a salary bill of over £3 million and are already paying the 0.5% levy. HR and L&D teams can address some of their talent challenges and skills gaps by accessing the post of money which has been made available for Apprenticeships.

To find out more about Reed Learning HR Apprenticeship programmes please contact our specialist advisers.