Maria Miller MP has welcomed the Government’s commitment to creating apprenticeships at the launch of National Apprenticeship Week 2016. Maria, shadowed by an apprentice from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Ellie Cole, visited local employer SSE. She met with apprentices and the SSE management team and discussed the success of their apprenticeship scheme.
Maria Commented: “The theme for this year’s National Apprenticeship Week is that an apprenticeship can take you anywhere. A growing number of young people are looking to an apprenticeship as an alternative route to studying at university.
Apprenticeships make sense for young people across Basingstoke which is why 5,200 new apprentices have started since May 2010 and over 2.6 million new apprenticeships have started across England.
The apprentices I met at SSE were an example of how firms can both give young people much needed experience and gain huge commercial benefit. Apprentices are trained by the company in a way that best contributes to the business. I think more could be done to highlight the benefits of apprenticeships in school so that young people can explore all the alternatives open to them after GCSEs.