This report by researchers at King’s Business School and commissioned by the Office of Manpower Economics, explores the impact of apprenticeships on recruitment and retention in the public sector. The report focuses on the workforces covered by the public sector pay review bodies for Primary and Secondary School Teachers, The Armed Forces, Police Officers and National Health Service (NHS) staff.
The research comes in the wake of recent national policy developments including the introduction of an apprenticeship levy and apprentice targets, designed to encourage the growth in apprenticeship numbers across the economy. These developments have made apprenticeships increasingly central to workforce management in the public sector.
The researchers found that across the 4 workforces the approaches to apprenticeships were uneven:
Teaching: The use of apprenticeships is fractured and disconnected, with this form of training gaining little traction to date in teaching.
Armed Forces: Apprenticeships are deeply embedded within the armed forces, able as a consequence to take the recent changes to apprenticeship training in their stride.