Traineeships and Apprenticeships Today

The government of the day seems determined not to let school leavers slip or slide away, or fall through any cracks on their way from school to further education or employment, or a mix of the two.

The number of young people leaving school to enrol at universities is falling only slightly under the increases of the already weighty costs of university fees and maintenance costs, but these pursuing their own particular paths.

Of course there are a great number of school leavers after A levels who do not have much of an idea of what they see themselves doing as a career, and choose university as simply the “next thing to do”.

There are those who go to university because it is expected of them, and there are those who want to go to get away from home, fledge their wings.

There are those to whom the academic life suits well, and there are those who see it as a natural stepping stone to a particular goal in the future.

There are some that just go “for the crack”, those who go because all their friends are going, and there are many who go for a mixture of reasons.

Likewise, those who leave school with few or even no qualifications, have arrived at that point because of a number of reasons, the foremost probably that the academic life does not suit.

Whatever the reasons, they are certainly as manyfold as those that take school leavers off to university.

The government has decreed that in England, although the school leaving age has been raised to 18, it doesn’t necessarily keep you in the classroom, and traineeships have been established which whilst helping to ensure the basic foundations of maths and English, train towards employment placing under the traineeship.

The traineeship is designed to support these young people’s transition into an apprenticeship or even employment within the work place while building a work place etiquette and work ethic. Professional training provision companies provide traineeships and apprenticeships in a wide range of industries leading to qualifications that will further your career.

Apprenticeships are rapidly becoming a very well regarded qualification indeed. A full blown university degree is an impressive offering to a potential employer, but so are certified qualifications of perhaps three years hands-on experience already under the belt.

Apprenticeships have another draw over university degree courses that to some school leavers are very important, and that is that not only will they be earning a wage whilst learning the course, at the end of the graduates course they will almost certainly have debts which could be as high as £40,000, against the apprenticeship debt of….nothing.