The future for apprenticeships after Brexit is looking rosie.
If you can remember as far back as 2016 the UK had a little vote which would change the lives of millions for years to come. Otherwise commonly none as the referendum the residents of this glorious country voted to leave the EU or otherwise none to many now as Brexit.
Over the last three years or so there has been much speculation as to what would happen when we leave the EU, would the UK fall into recession would the cost of everything go up the list goes on. What we can guarantee is that the available supply of skilled workforce will start to shrink, our prediction is that fewer European nationals will want to work in the UK due to restriction being imposed.
What has this got to do with apprenticeships you ask?
Well even before the referendum there was a skills shortage across the UK, with many companies struggling to hire the required skill sets for their business. The government introduced the Apprenticeship Levy to help and encourage companies to focus on employing apprentice to help stem the skills gap, which has been a great success to date.
However, during the last three years companies have had the option to recruit easily from abroad for many skills across numerous industry sector such as Construction or IT without any restriction due to the free movement agreement of being a part of the EU.
Now that we have left the EU, albeit not properly until December of this year, it is anticipated that that steady supply of skilled workers will start to decline. With this in mind our prediction is that more companies are going to have to focus their attentions on training up more apprentices to be sustainable.
Key employment sectors we envisage will up their apprentice intake will be Construction due to the increase in house building and infrastructure projects such as HS2. We also anticipate the healthcare sector needing to increase the apprentice volumes they recruit via the apprenticeship route. The NHS is already a big recruiter of apprentices, but will it be enough to sustain the requirements of an ever-growing country.
The utility sector is also a great opportunity for your first steps into employment as an apprentice, every household in the UK and businesses alike have to use some form of utility whether that be water or electric, that’s why we believe utility apprenticeships are great and offer a very secure long term employment opportunity.
If you are looking to enter the world of work through an apprenticeship and become an apprentice, then over the next twelve months your options are going to increase. Plus, we also believe that due to the shortage in skills available to attract apprentices to their business companies will have to increase their offerings in the form of a more attractive apprentice wage and benefits.