Screwfix launches guide to apprenticeships
Screwfix has launched a new guide to help tradespeople understand how they can hire an apprentice.
The free booklet was launched at the retailer’s Brixton store by Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills.
Entitled ‘Your Guide to Hiring an Apprentice’, the booklet will be available in Screwfix stores across England. It has been released by Screwfix in conjunction with BIS after its Tradesman Manifesto research showed that tradespeople want an increase in the availability of skilled workers through the encouragement of apprenticeships as well as help in understanding how to take apprentices on.
Andrew Livingston, chief executive of Screwfix, said: “We understand how vital apprentices are as the future lifeblood of the trade, but it’s clear from what our customers are telling us that more needs to be done to simplify the process of hiring one.”
The study found that more than three quarters of UK tradespeople want the Government to raise the number of apprenticeship places from 110,000 to 400,000 and encourage as many school leavers to take up apprenticeships as go to university. Many of the plumbers, electricians, builders, carpenters and other tradespeople questioned in the Screwfix poll said they had little or no experience of taking on apprentices, with only 14% having employed one in the last year.
Sajid Javid said: “This guide will be an essential tool to help the trade to plug the skills gap by finding and developing the next generation of skilled tradesmen and women and realising our goal of creating three million apprenticeships by 2020.”
