Our Apprenticeship Strategy

At West Berkshire Council we see apprenticeships as valuable at all levels, enabling the council to meet its current and future skills needs. Apprenticeships are one element of our workforce training and development plans to ensure we have the right people with the right skills for our future needs.

In addition, we want to be an ambassador for apprenticeship in our local area and play an active role in reducing the employment inequality gap and encouraging businesses to support our ambition. Part of this would be working with our Economic Development Team, local businesses and colleges to ensure increased awareness of apprenticeships and their value. This will include working to facilitate levy transfer between local businesses to support Small and Medium Employers (SME's) who don't have an apprenticeship levy pot to fund training.

Our ambitions are as follows:

• identify apprenticeship opportunities and embed these across the council
• actively promote apprenticeships within the council, both as a recruitment tool, as part of retention strategies, and encouraging a learning and development culture
• utilise higher level apprenticeships to support succession planning, personnel development, recruitment and retention, and developing future leaders
• maximise the use of levy spend and increase the number of apprenticeship starts with a view to meeting our public-sector target
• in the capacity of Corporate Parent we will create apprenticeships for our Looked After Children, SEND pupils and NEETS
• encourage work experience placements and/or traineeships as a pathway to an apprenticeship
• actively promote apprenticeships to local businesses within West Berkshire

We're currently working on a new strategy - we'll publish it on this page when it's available!