It is a strange period – strange in a positive way. What an amazing apprenticeship week and we have been bombarded with incredible stories of apprenticeships at all levels. I have a long list of links to stories from across the country of the impact apprenticeships have had for individuals and employers. The fact that an unprecedent 35 MPs have contacted us to arrange to see apprentices in their constituencies, with requests still flowing in shows that apprenticeships and skills are top of

I am writing this as Apprenticeship Week is in full flow. It is great to see so many of you at all the events I am attending and hopefully get to catch up with a lot of you at our Spring Conference in Birmingham on Thursday. I have so much I would like to write about and have a tonne of articles I want to point you all to – some of the amazing things I am hearing about, the incredible work our members are doing and some of the challenges we are facing. For example, we read about Vauxhall

Firstly, I am sure you are all aware it is National Apprenticeship Week next week. It is still not too late to email your local MP and offer them an opportunity to visit an employer and meet apprentices. It doesn’t have to be anything grand – a short visit is all that is needed. AELP wrote to all MPs offering the same and have had a steady flow of acceptances, which is really excellent, and we are contacting local providers to arrange visits, but if you are able to do the same it should

It is an incredibly busy time. That, combined with no train journeys this week, means another concise introduction from me. We have meetings with the Secretary of State, the shadow skills minister and a whole range of officials and organisations such as Ofqual, Ofsted and IFATE during this crucial period in the run up to the budget and also laying the foundations for the spending review that will follow straight afterwards. As well as apprenticeships, we are involved in discussions around T

Yesterday I got a short email in my inbox from the Tory party – I get them from all the parties before you ask, and I think they grabbed my email before the days of GDPR. As my parents will tell you, they still get letters for me at their house from all the parties as many years ago I joined all three parties for a year so that I could go to their conferences at member rates – I think that is against all the rules, but I didn’t know at the time! Anyway, it wasn’t a long email from the Tories

New Year, New Challenges Happy New Year – here we go 2020!! It is a shame that my break got interrupted by blatant publicity grabbing fake news about fake apprenticeships, squeezing the pips out of a story once again. That wasn’t reality two years ago, let alone in 2020. Anyway, what has been quite encouraging is the backlash against the report and a tide of agreement that actually apprenticeships at all levels, and particularly level 2, have real value and we need more not less.