Serco pledges to have 1,000 apprentices by end of the year

Serco has today pledged to have 1,000 employees undertaking apprenticeships in the UK by the end of the year, an increase of over 33% on existing numbers. The company has made this pledge in support of National Apprenticeship Week 2016 (14-18 March).

As part of this commitment, the company is also recruiting two new Chartered Manager Degree Apprentices (CDMA) in Enterprise Architecture. During 2015 Serco led a group of 40 employers and universities to develop the standards for this new degree level apprenticeship in management, in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The two new Degree Apprentices in Enterprise Architecture will learn how to design and develop organisation shapes and structures and explore how different organisations cooperate with each other for different projects, while also developing their project and people management skills.  Their first assignment will be to work on a research project looking at more efficient, joined up delivery of public services through multi-agency collaboration.

Separately, nine existing apprentices from across the business will this week be job shadowing a member of Serco’s Executive team - including Group Chief Executive Rupert Soames - to broaden their knowledge of the business and gain a unique insight into what it’s like to run a large, multinational business.

These apprentices are currently taking part in the South West regional heats of the 2016 Brathay Apprentice Challenge. In their bid to become the national apprentice team of the year, the nine-strong team must undertake a range of activities to engage with young people and businesses in the community and promote the benefits and value of apprenticeships. Some of their stories are shared in the case studies below.

Serco is one of the UK’s Top 100 employers of apprentices and currently supports around 750 apprentices in our UK business and a further 600 apprentices externally through a direct contract with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

Apprentices are recruited and trained via the company’s central Vocational Services team, a registered training organisation which has recently been awarded a “Good” rating by Ofsted in October 2015. The team was first established in 2002 so that Serco could train its own aircraft engineers due to a national skills shortage. It has since expanded its remit and curriculum to deliver over 25 different apprenticeships, as well as other work-based training programmes relating to more than 200 job roles across a range of different sectors from Custodial Care, Fitness and Leisure through to Facilities Management and Aeronautical Engineering - reflecting the breadth of services that Serco provides.