If you're planning on going for an apprenticeship, then it's highly likely that sometime between now and the end of that apprenticeship you'll see the initials SASE.
To people born before the age of emails, SASE means "self-addressed sealed envelope" but in your case, it'll mean "Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England". This specification was published by the Department for Education, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the National Apprenticeship Service, in January 2011.
SASE sets out the minimum requirements for a recognised English apprenticeship framework, which must be adhered to by any business or organisation taking on apprentices. It's intended to promote fairness and transparency and to ensure that apprentices receive more than 180 hours of guided learning per year. If necessary SASE also makes sure apprentices get the support they need to improve their numeracy and literacy.
When a business starts thinking about setting up an apprenticeship scheme, they approach SASE, whose Sector Skills Council staff helps with the development of a learning programme for apprentices both in the short term and in the long term. Once the framework is mapped out, SASE either approves it or returns it for further consultation.
A great number of companies, employing more than 85,000 people between them are currently offering around two hundred different apprenticeship roles. A major funding push is planned starting in the year 2014, so as the rise in tuition fees takes its toll on the number of new university students, and while the number of available places continues to drop even as the job market continues to shrink - for graduates and non-gradates alike - apprenticeship schemes are becoming a much more viable option.
That's for several reasons, not least of which is the total lack of student debt hanging over the heads of apprentices, as well as the very great possibility of a job offer at the end of their apprenticeship, since companies have seen the light and are beginning to recruit new employees - they already know - from within instead of trusting to luck - and paying through the nose for the privilege. And then, of course, there's the matter of the exact qualifications and precise training those companies are looking for - plus the right work experience.
So while you're researching your apprenticeship, it's definitely worth looking all the way through the text to find the initials SASE, because while nothing in life is guaranteed, once you find those letters you know that apprenticeship really does have a lot to offer you - for all the right reasons.
