HomeServe Highlight Shortage of Apprenticeships
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 14 July 2021
UPDATED: 14 July 2021
Finding an apprenticeship is as competitive as getting a place at Oxford, says HomeServe
HomeServe receives 5,000 applications for just 12 gas apprenticeship placements – an application ratio per place more than ten times higher than vying for a place at Oxford
Demand for skills is outstripping apprenticeship places, and new research shows that 48 per cent of mums and dads would now prefer their children to learn a trade rather than go to university
Finding an apprenticeship opportunity is as competitive as getting a place at Oxford, home repairs and improvements firm HomeServe says.
The Walsall-based national firm received applications from 5,000 people for just 12 places on its 24-month gas heating apprenticeship programme which is set to start in August. Oxford typically receives seven applications for each place which start in October.
Candidates for the 12 places to study at the HomeServe Apprenticeship Academy in Nottingham came from all over the UK and from all ages and backgrounds.
The news comes following on from the firm’s founder and CEO Richard Harpin’s call for more trades skills such as bathroom fitters and kitchen installers, to be added to the jobs shortage list because of a growing trades skills shortage.
Karen Halford, People Director at HomeServe, said:
“The standard of applicants we received has been astonishingly high and we are still processing them.
“Attitudes are changing towards apprenticeships and vocational education. The pandemic has had a huge impact on the youth labour market and routes to employment like trades apprenticeships are becoming increasingly important as part of the long-term economic recovery. But there aren’t enough placements, despite a booming demand for trades skills.
“We know through the work of our charity the HomeServe Foundation that we need to dramatically increase the number of trades apprentices we have in the UK if we’re going to be able to build back better and greener and meet the booming demand for home improvements for the longer term. I’m delighted that we, at HomeServe, are doing our bit”.
The new recruits will be fully employed by HomeServe and will be based in Liverpool, Walsall, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Chelmsford.
Meanwhile, new research has found 48 per cent of mums and dads in the UK would now prefer their children to learn a trade than go to university.
The poll from the Social Market Foundation and the Further Education Trust, found nearly one in four people think studying for a degree isn’t valuable for getting a job, while 85 per cent felt vocational training like apprenticeships are.
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