Consulting firms key in apprenticeship standards UK

Eleven consulting firms have signed up to develop the new standard for management consultancy apprenticeships as part of the UK Government Trailblazers scheme to reform all apprenticeships in the UK. This reform will ensure that the developed skills of apprentices meet the needs of employers to enhance their competiveness. In addition to the consulting firms involved in the management consultancy Trailblazer scheme, several other consulting firms also signed up to develop standards for other apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships provide an important opportunity for young professionals to gain work experience while receiving on-the-job and off-the-job training during which a specific set of skills and qualifications is taught, and for employers to shape and groom future talent for their company. If an apprenticeship is well set up and the company is able to adjust its features to respond to new developments in the field, an apprenticeship can create outstanding new talent. This talent can form an attribute not only to the company, but also to the sector, and can hence improve a country’s competiveness.

Trailblazers scheme of the UK Government
The UK Government has announced the need to reform the apprenticeships in the UK to make them more rigorous and responsive to the needs of employers. In order to do this, new apprenticeships standards and assessment approaches need to be developed that will shape all new apprenticeships in order to make them world-class. These new standards are to be developed by employer-led Trailblazers; groups of large and small employers and professional entities from different sectors. More than 1,000 employers across 37 sectors, including Agriculture, Business, Engineering, Healthcare, HR & Recruitment, Logistics and Supply Chain, and Transport, are designing new apprenticeships to best meet the skills needs of their industries. The newly developed standards will be short, simple, accessible, and replace the complex frameworks currently in place.

Among the employers involved, several consulting firms are found, including management consultancy Accenture, talent, retirement and health solution expert Aon Hewitt, IT consultancy Atos, accountancy and business advisory firm Baker Tilly, accounting, tax and advisory firm BDO, information technology and business process services provider CGI, assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, and HR expert Mercer.

Management consultancy apprenticeship
One of the new apprenticeships to be developed is the management consultancy apprenticeship. To develop the standard for management consultancy apprentices, the UK Government enlisted 11 consulting firms. The management consultancy Trailblazer will be led by PwC and consists of Deloitte, KPMG, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, EY, Stanninghouse Consulting, Capgemini, Roth Observatory International, JIP Rooke, Red Quadrant, and IBM. “We are proud to lead a team of employers, in a new Government trailblazer, to develop a Management Consultancy Apprenticeship Standard in England. The standard will help all management consulting employers measure the success of their apprenticeship programmes and the performance of their apprentices,” says Sara Caplan, PwC Education Partner. “As a major employer of school leavers we believe this trailblazer will give young people greater access to the workforce and provide the training and work experience they need to progress within the industry, whilst also developing the skills that support economic growth.”