National Apprenticeship Week promotes the benefits of apprenticeships in the workplace, highlights the range of skills and talents available to employers through apprentices and raises awareness of the range of opportunities available to potential apprentices.
Lord Digby Jones, an ardent supporter of apprenticeships and training in the workplace, said –
“In Asia’s Century, the UK will only win through and create profits to generate taxation and sustainable employment, if it delivers value-added, innovative manufactured goods and services to a fiercely competitive global market place.
“We haven’t a hope of doing any of that without continual access to a pool of skilled people. Not rocket scientists; not graduates with first-class honours degrees in obscure subjects; just young men and women coming out of school able to read, write and count and then trained on the job. Learning in practical ways the life skills of getting to work on time every time; developing self-esteem; finding out about teamwork; becoming qualified in a transferable skill which sets you up for life and enables you to make the connection between being skilled and earning a few bob.
“… And people who earn a few bob tend to spend it, which creates another job down the road.
“Training, training, training. The only route to a successful Britain in Asia’s Century. And to any employer, large or small, who says that training’s expensive I say, “Just try ignorance”!”
Now in it’s fifth year, National Apprenticeship Week runs from 6-10 February 2012.
