Proskills launches first Apprenticeship Week
PROSKILLS is celebrating the launch of the first Apprenticeship Week (25–29 February 2008) with the announcement of the 2008 Apprenticeship Awards for the process and manufacturing sector, including the extractive and mineral processing industries.
Apprenticeship Week is an initiative backed by the Government that has been designed to celebrate the ongoing success of apprenticeships while rallying more employers to take on apprentices.
Roseanne Hayward, extractive and mineral processing industries’ champion of Proskills, the sector skills council for the process and manufacturing industries, said: ‘The development of a specific week is an ideal way of marking the success of apprenticeships and an opportunity for us to highlight the benefits of apprenticeships for individuals and companies alike.
‘We will be promoting the new apprenticeship frameworks for the extractive and mineral processing industries within our sector and highlighting why these apprenticeship frameworks are the best possible preparation for achieving skilled occupational status within the extractive and mineral processing industries.
‘Apprenticeships are a winning formula: they use qualifications which are developed to fit the occupation, they enable knowledge and skills to be passed down through the country’s workforce to future generations, and they allow an employee to quickly contribute to an employer’s bottom line.’
The new Extractive and Mineral Processing apprenticeship will be adding to the 240,000 apprentices who are currently on apprenticeship schemes throughout England – about 140,000 at NVQ level 2 (apprenticeships) and 100,000 at NVQ level 3 (advanced apprenticeships).
Roseanne Hayward added: ‘We introduced the Apprenticeship Awards for process and manufacturing in 2007 as a means of demonstrating the value that apprentices can bring to a business. They were so successful that we have chosen the first Apprenticeship Week to announce that we will be continuing the Awards for 2008. This will be a UK-wide opportunity for apprentices from across all of our industries to raise their profile and show the sector what they are made of.’
An entry form for the 2008 Apprenticeship Awards can be found on the Proskills website by clicking on the web link below. Apprenticeships are also one of the key aspects of the prospect4u careers website recently launched by Proskills.
