The number of new apprentices aged over 25 has rocketed by 377% as employers look to skill up and their workforce during the downturn. Recent government figures revealed that 46,800 over-25s joined apprenticeships this year, compared to only 12,400 in 2007-08. The increase in over-25's in apprenticeships comes at a time when the number of 16- to 18-year-olds in apprenticeships has fallen by 8.3%. Likewise the number of 19- to 24-year-olds signing up to apprenticeship schemes dropped by 2%.
A governmentspokesperson said the reason was because of the high proportion of over-25s being made redundant and turning to apprenticeships to gain new skills to become more employable. However, most of the upsurge in over-25s apprenticeships are from existing employees of organisations looking to motivate and further develop their staff. B&Q launched a new apprenticeship scheme this month for over 150 existing employees, and have since said the apprenticeship scheme was great for boosting engagement and loyalty. Of the existing staff who were put through the apprenticeship programme, 60% were aged over 25.
What does this mean for under-25s?
Times are tough and you've most probably seen in the media that unemployment is the worst we've seen in over 10 years and hardest hit are young people. Many organisations are looking to develop their existing staff rather than take on new members which is a blow to young people especially.
The good news is that not everyone is cutting school leaver recruitment in apprenticeships, in fact many companies are growing their apprenticeship programmes and looking to skill-up their future workforce (you!). What this also means however is competition for places on apprenticeships is going to be much, much tougher than usual.
