Financial services employers have been urged to come forward and stake their claim for new apprenticeship funding announced by the Government.
In the Comprehensive Spending Review last week, the Chancellor promised to double the number of apprenticeships for over-19-year-olds to boost skills and help generate economic growth.
An additional £250 million will be invested creating 75,000 more apprenticeships per year for adults in the workplace by 2014/2015, George Osborne revealed.
Sylvia Perrins, chief executive of the National Skills Academy for Financial Services, welcomed the announcement, but warned that the funding was dependent on companies coming forward to commit to apprenticeship training.
“It’s very pleasing to see the Government recognising the important benefits of apprenticeships for adults who are already in the workplace,” she said.
“However, the industry is at risk of missing out unless it is vocal about staking its claim on this funded training route. As a demand-led funding system, companies need to come forward if they are to have a hope of benefiting from this boost. “
Perrins described apprenticeships as “an ideal solution” for finance employees to get professional qualifications within a training programme that can be tailored to their company’s culture and business objectives.
“We want the industry to respond by using apprenticeships as a way to retrain and retain our people,” she added.
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