At Aspire Training Team we have showcased our commitment to developing our people by joining The 5% Club, an industry led initiative focused on driving momentum into the recruitment of apprentices, graduates and sponsored students.
The 5% Club, initiated by Leo Quinn Group CEO of Balfour Beatty in 2013, is a movement of more than 700 employers providing ‘earn and learn’ opportunities to develop the skills and talents people need to become more employable and create meaningful careers. Companies joining The 5% Club commit to raising the number of apprentices, sponsored students and graduates on formal programmes to 5% of their total workforce within five years. Members are also asked to publicly report their progress in their Annual Report. Existing members range from SMEs to FTSEs and cover a number of diverse industries, from engineering through to the legal sector.
We wanted to join the 5% club to show our dedication to training employees and supporting career progression throughout the company. We also wanted to ensure we were being recognised for the hard work we have already contributed and wanted to join something we consider very important throughout their company. As a training provider, we understand the importance of apprenticeships and creating opportunities for young people.
Aspire already exceeds the charter promise, to dedicate 5% of its employees’ numbers to earn and learn positions. In 2022 Aspire has nearly achieved 10%, Including, 8 individuals working towards graduate programmes to include 5 colleagues working towards Level 6, 1 working towards QTS, 1 working towards Level 7 and 1 working towards Level 8.
Aspire’s focus is to ensure that there are plenty of opportunities for young people. One way they do this is by offering Level 1 courses as they recognise that some young people aren’t ready to commit to a full apprenticeship. Similarly, young learners may just be looking into what a career in childcare looks like before they take it on full time, so a Level 1 is a great way to get an understanding of childcare.
We support young learners with achieving the right qualifications to help them start further training. For example; we support learners who don’t have their English and Maths by sourcing training at external providers in order for them to progress with their apprenticeship. Furthermore, we have provided learners with additional training time where needed to catch up with training and managers plan additional 1:1 support sessions for any learners that may be struggling with the course content.
We also provide opportunities, above and beyond the baseline requirements of each course we offer for learners to engage in CPD (Continuous Professional Development). This can range from being on one of our Trainee programmes to accessing additional e-learning content or attending one of our in-house training courses.
Aspire supported a young learner when we sourced English language classes for an individual who wanted to do her Level 3 but needed to develop her English language skills as she had English as an additional language.
Gill Cronin, Director of Operations of The 5% Club said, “We’re delighted to welcome Aspire Training Team into membership. The 5% Club provides a fantastic network of HR professionals, sharing and learning from each other. All our members share an ethos of creating a skilled workforce through ‘earn and learn’ development programmes, helping people develop meaningful career paths.”
Would you like to become an Apprentice with Aspire? You can see a full list of our apprenticeships here, or our vacancies here.
If you’d like to hire an apprentice please click here to get in touch.
