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Welcome to Eposm Downs Racecourse and welcome to the Surrey Youth Festival.
The purpose of today is to promote young people and promote employability, crucially, we’re
launching our scheme to fill 200 app in 100 days and all of the business bodies here today
we’d like you to pledge to have apprentices and employ apprentices in your business.
The plan for Surrey young people is to help them become more employable because we know
if they've got a job ad have access to paid employment they are more likely to have a
better life, to be healthier, happier and safe.
So what are apprenticeships?
They are work-based training so we don’t have apprentices that are unemployed.
The other fact is that it’s designed around the apprentice, it will work at the speed
that they want to and are able to work and that you, the company, want them to work at
as well.
So there's a real push there to try and get the best out of those people.
Possible some of you have looked up the statistics or thought on apprenticeship wanting to get
an idea if this morning was for you.
Possible some of you are not gamblers and to get involved in a new scheme that's not
familiar to you is not the best odd for your business.
I feel that as employers we're all gamblers.
I know that with certainly the apprenticeship scheme give my business, my team and my bottom
line the best odds for success.
The training we're delivering at work – we're not having to change that training; we're
mapping it to a QCF so it fits a framework so you don’t have to change your business.
There are things out there that fit your business.
If you get the right people to guide and teach you what to do and where to do it.
There could be 250 apprentices on the scheme at any one point.
So for next year there'll be 300 apprentices coming into the scheme but any one point there
will be 20 apprentices in the scheme.
It's clear what an impact it has on the young people themselves – the benefits to them
are enormous.
What I think we've been less clear about is the benefit to business – and particular
the increase in motivated, productivity and skills that apprentices bring to the teams
that they are part of.
The apprenticeship scheme is really important for two reasons – good for the youngsters
it is an opportunity for young people to really benefit by being employed and to learn.
It is absolutely vital to them.
But it's absolutely vital to the economy of Surrey because we want to grow the economy
in every single way.
Apprentices are so imp to surrey because it not only allows us to invest in our young
people it allows those young people to develop the skills they need to make Surrey a really
world class part of the economy.
The benefits to the employers is they get to train their workforce specifically to the
roles they'll be doing within their company.
They also get their guys to operate on site they way their company operates, using their
standard operating procedures.
It also means they get a workforce that are trained and professional – eventually allowing
them to grow their business in a controlled manner.
It changed our organisation greatly because what the apprentices bring is a sense of youth
and the desire to want to process.
We class them as sponges – they are always ready to learn and they always want to tell
us what they think and what fits for them.
We're prepared to listen and they’re prepared to tell us.
I was a bit apprehensive to begin with but now I'm so glad I've done it because it’s
made me grow in confidence so much.
I'm glad I chose an apprenticeship because it gives me opportunities in the future.
If you want to bring in someone who is very keen to learn, keen to do the best for the
business then take an apprentice because they want to do the best for themselves and the
best for the company because you're providing them with what they need and they will in
turn provide what you need.
My message to businesses would be to definitely take on apprentices.
The benefits to them is great – the retention, if you look at our retention it is 90% plus
– we graduate 96% of the people we start.
They are the leaders of the future if you train and develop them properly.
I'd prefer to do an apprenticeship which actually gets you somewhere in life if you work hard
at it.
I think it has increased my personality.
Before I was really timid and shy but now I’ve got a new, totally different confidence.
I would have never come to something like this before.
I'm glad I chose an apprentice because it givers me the opportunity to work with people
in the trade and learn first hand from them.
There's a lot of large companies using apprenticeships.
They all think it's worthwhile and we hope you do as well.