Supermarkets team with govt to boost apprenticeships
13/08/2008(13:50)
Tesco and Sainsbury's have teamed with the UK government to help encourage more young people to embrace apprenticeships, it has been reported.
According to Personnel Today, the retail giants will work alongside other companies and skills secretary John Denham to "axe bureaucracy in the skills system" and encourage more firms to offer apprenticeships.
The news provider states that planned initiatives include stopping monthly reporting requirements, scrapping the need to store paperwork for six years and halting multiple inspections.
Speaking to the publication, Denham said he aims to treble the number of apprenticeships available adding: "It's now clear the apprenticeship model works just as well in administration and management jobs [as it does in manual jobs]."
In an interview with Traniningzone.co.uk, David Potts, retail director at Tesco, said that the supermarket chain hopes to double the amount of apprentices it hires if the red tape surrounding such schemes is cut.
Meanwhile, data from the annual Higher Education Statistics Agency survey shows that there has been a fall in the unemployment rate for graduates between 2006 and 2007.
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