YH will be going down to interview the manager of the Greenway Centre, Lorraine King in Harlow soon.

In the meantime, here is a blog piece taken from the www.spaceforgrowth.co.uk in which Lorraine extols the virtues of the apprenticeship system.

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“As the Centre Manager at The Greenway Centre based in Harlow, I was pleased to host the Growth in Harlow event on the 26th July, that provided growth inspiration for many of the businesses based here.

The events are run throughout the year after feedback from one of our customers at the centre, who wanted a networking facility with the other businesses but also to gain insight and learning from peers on all aspects of growing their business.

We focus on all aspects of business growth and this event was to increase understanding and awareness of the newly simplified Modern Apprenticeship programme that is run nationally by the National Skills Council.

The delegates were given a complete understanding of how Modern Apprenticeships can work from the perspectives of:

1. The business and how beneficial the initiative is in realising growth potential – John Barry from Office Scape spoke about his experiences of employing two apprentices for his growing business and is interviewing for more http://www.office-scape.com

2. The apprentice – how this compares to the university route in establishing a career – two apprentices spoke of their experiences and how the initiative has worked for them. Aaron Farrel, who is the Parliamentarian Apprentice for Robert Halfon MP and Mason Pettengell, the Sales Support Apprentice for TheLightBulb – www.thelightbulb.com.

3. The training provider – this perspective was delivered by both TheLightBulb and Harlow College http://www.harlow-college.ac.uk/apprenticeships and demonstrated the flexible approaches to training and how it can be tailored for individual businesses.

The key message was that the programme has been simplified in terms of signing up, funding and paperwork. It’s far more focused towards providing a recruitment solution for growing businesses and a viable alternative to young people without the hefty university fees.

Additionally, there are significant financial incentives for a business going through the scheme as you can currently take on an apprentice for £2.65 per hour, however many employers pay more than this. Plus there are subsidies available from local authorities for up to £3500.00 towards the salary. The training cost is fully subsidised by local government.