NAW 25 was quite the week. For the company we had a flurry of activity, celebrating our amazing apprentices many of of whom have completed their programmes recently with distinctions.
We were also out and about with some of our NHS clients in London meeting new apprentices and celebrating the success of old ones. Whittington, Kings College, Guy’s and St Thomas and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trusts all held apprenticeship events and Guys and St Thomas held a fantastic celebration of learning to recognise the 58 learners who have completed so far, over half of them with distinctions.
NAW 25 was also a week of announcements and change. The removal of the requirement to complete Functional Skills for those over 19 is a game changer for us. We have spent years delivering Functional Skills learning to people who are completely over qualified, but are from overseas or simply couldn’t find their certificates, a waste of their time and scarce public funds.
We welcome this announcement from the Department for Education. Other announcements including the reduction of the mandatory length of apprenticeships from 12 to 8 months and the proposed removal of the requirement to match the ILR to the apprenticeship service will take a bit longer to develop, but in principle seems like a positive step forward. We welcome the DfE’s new approach, even if it kept us busy!
