Apprenticeships in Portsmouth

Years ago, if you lived in Portsmouth you were almost guaranteed a job for life. With the extent of the dockyard, apprenticeships were rife and skills were taught, and learnt, within the city.

With the rise in university fees and other factors we should now be looking at increasing the number and variety of apprenticeships available in Portsmouth.

The Dockyard School

From 1843, the Dockyard School provided fundamental and a high standard of technical education to thousands of apprentices, mostly from a working class background, who would not otherwise have had the opportunity of receiving such an education.

Source – www.portsmouthdockyard.org.uk

The apprenticeships at the Dockyard School went on until the start of WWII after which they dwindled out as the dockyards key functions got moved elsewhere.

Portsmouth Dockyard School

Modern Day

Apprenticeships

I’ve tried to find exact numbers of apprenticeships in Portsmouth but it hasn’t been easy. However, from what I know there are approximately 440 apprenticeship placements within the Portsmouth area each year. There are likely to be a few big employers who offer the lion’s share of apprenticeships.

Considering the number of school leavers in the area, this does not seem to account for enough.

This year, the number of people starting apprenticeships in England has risen by more than 50% on last year. There were 442,700 apprenticeship starts in the academic year 2010-11 compared with 279,000 the previous year.

This is broken down as:

40% aged over 25
31% aged 19 – 24
29% aged under 19

Source: BBC News | 27th October

As we know, there is a rather low aspiration in parts of the city amongst some of the younger people. With no desire or aspiration to continue “formal” education, we should now be looking at increasing the number of apprenticeships available across all the industries in the area.

How Apprenticeships Work

For employers these work-based programmes provide training towards a national recognised qualification. Funding may also be available.

For employees apprenticeship employees can earn a wage whilst learning and working alongside experienced staff. Anyone living in England, over 16 years-old and not in full-time education can apply.

Having never employed an apprentice before, I am going on what I’ve heard and read. However, I passionately believe that there are lots of opportunities to educate & train some of the kids leaving school with no desire to carry on with education.

I believe that business leaders in Portsmouth & Southsea have an obligation to get involved and start an apprenticeship scheme. We will be starting an apprenticeship scheme at Something Interesting next year.