It’s finally here… Release 4 will be going live on the evening of 15^th March! Many of you attended the briefings that were held, we hope you found these beneficial, it was certainly useful for us to be able to discuss the changes with you and take on board your feedback for future releases.

For those of you who may have missed the sessions, please see a summary of the changes below, and links to the updated training guides that have been added to the Apprenticeships website.

• New text editor facility

• Improved print layouts

• Improvements to the vacancy ladder

• Changes to how vacancies are completed

• Secure transfer of application data to employers

• Ability to add Higher level Apprenticeships

• Changes to the Learning Provider profiles

http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/Training/learning-providers.aspx

The Apprenticeship vacancies team will be “on call” to deal with providers questions and queries on the 15^th and 16^th so there may be a slight delay to normal service. As ever, if you have comments or suggestions that you would like us to take on board for future releases please let your coordinator know and we will add them to the log.

Age Grant for Employers – Message from Gavin Smith

To date we have authorised 860 grants for employers and currently do not have a waiting list. This is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates a willingness amongst employers to offer Apprenticeship opportunities.

We now need to ensure that these opportunities are matched with eligible young people. At midday today we had processed 146 ILR starts, representing 22.5% of our 650 target. This leaves us with 504 vacancies to be filled in the remaining thirteen working days before the project ends on 31 March.

Thank you for the hard work you are putting into recruiting eligible young people, we are doing everything we can to support this, but ask that you keep this effort going to the very end of the initiative. Please remember that in order to claim the grant the young person must have started on their Apprenticeship by 31 March. Any starts after that date can not be accepted and the grant will not be paid.

Please ensure that all ILR numbers and names are sent through to Malcolm Wright as soon as the young person has started and that any names you have submitted pending an ILR number are followed up as soon as possible. Grants will not be released until the claim is submitted with a learner name and ILR number. Should you have an employer who will no longer be utilising the grant, please let Malcolm know so that funds can be reallocated.

Thank you for your continued support with this important initiative.

Marketing Update

AGE Marketing

The AGE scheme got off to a flying start and over 5,000 employers nationally signed up to take on an unemployed 16 or 17 year old. The focus has now turned towards attracting eligible learners to take up these posts.

We have started a Facebook advertising campaign, specifically targeted at the 16 and 17 year old groups. A radio campaign has been launched on stations across the country during 8^th March to 19^th March and the aim will be to increase the number of registrations on Apprenticeship vacancies and promote those vacancies with no applications. You may have already heard these adverts, or the interview that was aired on Radio 5 Live’s Wake up to money, and Breakfast News programmes.

In the South East we have also advertised vacancies with no applications in local papers, appearing in The Argus - Sussex, Reading Post - Berkshire and Isle of Wight County Press covering Isle of Wight.

Please can we remind you to encourage applications through Apprenticeship vacancies online.

Marco Pierre White Campaign

On 22^nd February NAS launched a new viral advertising campaign starring Marco Pierre White – as if he hadn’t done his Apprenticeship. The three viral adverts show Marco as ‘The CCTV Chef’ working in a burger van – a very different life than the one he lives today. The humorous adverts highlight the value of Apprenticeships and aim to inspire young people to find out more about the Apprenticeship opportunities available for them. Macro is a fantastic advocate of Apprentices and is really passionate about them being the best way to train young people in his industry. The virals can be seen on apprenticeships.org or on youtube. They will also be running on lots of youth focused websites over the next few weeks.

Apprenticeship Week 2011

The dates have been announced for Apprenticeship Week 2011, it will be held on February 7^th – February 11^th 2011.

Social Media

Does your organisation tweet? Do you have a Facebook page? If so, follow us!

Become a fan of Apprenticeships on Facebook

New Apprenticeship vacancies Support Tools

To coincide with Release 4, Apprenticeships.org.uk will have two new training features added to help you use the system more effectively.

Support topics have been developed following feedback from Candidates, Providers and Support agencies such as Connexions and will go live on the website on Tuesday 16^th March. They are extremely useful resources for; familiarising yourself with different aspects of Apprenticeship vacancies and directing your clients to – there are some extremely useful sections on interview prep which we would recommend you highlight to candidates who you might be inviting for interview.

For more information, please visit the Partners section of the website, or contact your coordinator.

FOR INFORMATION

Apprenticeship vacancies – the stats

Live Vacancies

National – 8,053

South East - 646

Registered Candidates

National – 291,111

South East – 40,871

Top 5 Sectors

1. Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies

2. Information and Communication Technology

3. Business, Administration and Law

4. Health, Public Services and Care

5. Construction, Planning and the Built Environment

Profile Audits

Your profiles are the most important marketing tool you have on Apprenticeship vacancies, it is searchable by Employers, learners, and used by our Employer Services and Business Link colleagues, and as such should be accurate and really sell your organisation.

As you should now be aware, release 4 will allow you to format the text in your profile, enter success rates as “new” and your frameworks and delivery areas have been redesigned to be grouped together.

To ensure information on Apprenticeship vacancies is up to date and correct, we will be conducting a profile audit week commencing 29^th March.

We will be checking:

Content of employer and candidate profiles
Sector success rates match those in 08/09 MLP reports or are listed as New
Contact names/details are correct

Due to the volume of providers, we will have to trust that your delivery locations are correct. Those of you who have had incorrect locations listed will have, no doubt, already been notified by a member of the Employer Services team!

MLP reports are available from the Provider Gateway, and should be taken from your overall performance figure.

URNs - Got your number?

In order to advertise your vacancies, the Apprenticeship vacancies team has to link the employer to your profile using a Unique Reference Number (URN) generated from the EDS website. Providers should be familiar with this site as you are required to enter the URN on learners ILR.

Due to the high demand of new employers needed to be added to the system, (which is brilliant!) your coordinator now requires you to have sought the URN before requesting the employer to be placed on the system.

You will find guidance documents on how to register and how to find your employers URN on EDS below. The web address is: http://edrs.lsc.gov.uk/search/lsc/

BACKGROUND REGISTER AS A USER HOW TO OBTAIN URNS

As before if you email your coordinator with the employers you need to add, with the URN we will be able to add them straight away!

Training

If you require training, please contact your Apprenticeship vacancies Coordinator and they will be happy to arrange one to one training.

Contact Details

Amanda Sayers, Learner Services Manager, Apprenticeship Vacancies Online - 0118 908 2210

Ellie Ulrich – 0118 908 2183 (West - Thames Valley, Hampshire)

Alison Williams – 01273 783579 (East - Surrey, Sussex, Kent)

Office cover hours – Monday-Friday, 9.00am-5.00pm.

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