Hello PPMA members and friends

Last week was National Apprenticeship Week and to celebrate and support this our President, Gordon McFarlane penned an article for The MJ. As there’s lots of useful information in it we thought we’d share here too.

With lateral thinking, councils can use apprenticeships to support a diverse range of business and people priorities. Here’s a summary of innovative ideas recently shared at HR Director roundtables in Sheffield and Manchester, for councils to identify further opportunities to drive value from the apprenticeship levy.

First, identify ways in which apprenticeships can be used to support business goals. At Leicestershire County Council, we’ve set up a working group to do this and their findings will feed into our workforce plans.

Other councils are using the levy to prepare young people who are coming out of the care system for the world of work. In cases where councils can offer a permanent role, the apprenticeship also supports employability goals, and longer term should reduce ongoing welfare support costs for care leavers.

Similarly, a number of councils are using the levy to train early years practitioners and managers to help address the early years workforce crisis that threatens to derail the government’s 30 hours childcare pledge.

Elsewhere, colleagues are exploring how to maximise the levy transfer allowance rather than return unused payments. Ideas include transferring the council’s own allowance to community wealth creation projects and asking suppliers who offer apprenticeships to transfer their allowance to councils. In many ways this is a win-win scenario that would help suppliers create social value.

The second opportunity is to use apprenticeships to support workforce planning. Short term, they are an effective way to address chronic shortages in hard to fill roles, reduce reliance on temporary workers and prevent contingent workforce costs spiralling out of control. For example, in Leicestershire, we have used the levy to fund social work degree apprenticeships in adults and childrens. Other councils have similar offers to fill shortages in waste, transport, and environmental roles.

Longer term, apprenticeships create an attractive employee value proposition to counter negative perceptions about working in local government. An apprenticeship offers a structured and measured approach to learning on the job, together with a commitment from the council to nurture and develop the apprentice. There are benefits that appeal to both experienced returners and early career candidates.

As part of wider branding and marketing, councils should consider how to effectively communicate their commitment to apprenticeships to potential candidates. I look forward to the findings from the current LGA pilot designed to identify what support councils need to promote careers in local government.

In the meantime, every council can work with local schools, colleges, and universities to increase awareness of the wide range of roles available and the opportunity for students to earn while they learn. Unexpectedly, Love Island offers a valuable lesson in attracting younger candidates! A reliable source tells me that interest in training to become a social worker spiked following the revelation that one of the contestants was a social work apprentice!  Whatever your views on the programme, it illustrates that to engage young adults we need to communicate through their preferred media and channels.

With respect to reaching returners and experienced candidates, a number of councils have shown the power of community outreach to increase applications for council jobs from residents.  Councils are sending HR colleagues out into the community to raise awareness and ask people that express an interest to sign up then and there for an interview.

Third, with leadership development a high priority, councils are using the levy to fund leadership development programmes, which is a smart response to a challenging budget situation. Again, I think there is more we can be doing internally to promote higher, degree, and masters level apprenticeships

Finally, nominate an apprentice for the PPMA’s Apprentice of the year award. We offer two awards. One for intermediate / advanced apprenticeships, the other high/degree apprenticeships.  In addition to showing your organisation values apprentices, we’ve designed the programme to be a great learning opportunity for nominees to grow in confidence and nurture networks critical for personal development. Applications for this year’s programme are now closed but you can check out the PPMA website for further details.

There are many ways HR can utilise apprenticeships to support strategic business and people priorities. Whether that’s to address the early years recruitment crisis or develop senior managers for leadership, apprenticeships have a vital role to play.

Gordon McFarlane

PPMA President and Assistant Director, Leicestershire County Council