Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

ApprenticeshipsLatest NewsManagement trainingSenior management developmentLine managers

Managers ‘unwilling’ to be seen as apprentices

by Rob Moss 6 Mar 2018
by Rob Moss 6 Mar 2018

Most employers feel that middle and senior managers would be unwilling to be seen as an apprentice, meaning that businesses will miss out on funding for leadership training as apprenticeships become a key source of employers’ training budget.

Research from ILM, which looked at the training budgets and preferences of 1,000 HR decision makers in the UK, reveals that 58% of those surveyed feel middle and senior managers would be unwilling to be seen as an apprentice.

The main reasons are “reputation and image” of apprenticeships (53%) and the implication that it means they need additional support (41%).

Only one third (37%) of UK businesses are very confident about their long-term supply of leaders and managers in their organisation. The research also indicates the problem is more acute in smaller businesses, where 73% believe middle and senior managers wouldn’t be willing to be seen as an apprentice.

Professionals’ reluctance to be seen as an apprentice could be putting businesses at a significant disadvantage. Of those surveyed who currently run a formal leadership training programme to help fill middle and senior management or leadership roles, over two thirds (70%) aim their programmes at mid-level employees.

Yet only a quarter (25%) would consider using apprenticeships to improve the skills of middle managers, and 21% would consider using them to develop senior managers.

Jake Tween, head of apprenticeships at ILM, said: “Deeply ingrained associations with trade, low wages and a perception that they put a glass ceiling on progression, mean that apprenticeships have long been dismissed by those aspiring to seniority, and it’s time to put an end to it. We must work collectively – Government, employers, and providers – if we are to get to place where these prejudices are considered outdated.”

Meanwhile, UK employers have identified growing leadership skills gaps in their organisations, with half (51%) saying that the supply of leadership and management talent is being affected by factors such as a lack of talent with the right experience, a lack of available talent with the right technical or industry skills and a shortage of candidates willing to take on leadership and management roles.

This gap is set to widen, said ILM, as employer confidence in the future supply of leaders and managers in their organisations falls when looking beyond the next five years.

“At a time when businesses are being encouraged to take up apprenticeship programmes and use them to plug their most critical skills gaps, it is important that they are seen as what they really are: a highly effective way for employees at every level to gain the essential skills that businesses so desperately need, as well as a quality route for individuals to progress,” added Tween.

Earlier this year, the CIPD found that more than half of employers (53%) would prefer a more flexible “training levy” rather than an apprenticeship levy, so they could match funding to their individual training needs.

Rob Moss
Rob Moss

Rob Moss is a business journalist with more than 25 years' experience. He has been editor of Personnel Today since 2010. He joined the publication in 2006 as online editor of the award-winning website. He specialises in labour market economics, gender diversity and family-friendly working. He has hosted hundreds of webinar and podcasts, most recently on the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic. Before writing about HR and employment he ran news and feature desks on publications serving the global optical and eyewear market, the UK electrical industry, and electrical markets in Asia and the Middle East.

previous post
Hundreds of BBC staff demand full pay transparency
next post
How to manage gender identity in the workplace

3 comments

Avatar
Ayesha 8 Mar 2018 - 5:02 pm

Could it be named as something more positive, such as Leadership Development Programme, rather than Apprenticeships?

Reply
Avatar
Emerson 9 Mar 2018 - 9:51 am

The use of ‘Apprentice’ has certainly made the levy more confusing, as the term suggests someone young and new to the business/sector. That the funds from the levy can be applied to more or less anyone irrespective of age or existing experience, as long as you apply an ‘apprentice’ tag to them for the duration of the training.
“Training Levy” is both more accurate and clearer.

Reply
Avatar
Erica Farmer 12 Jun 2018 - 10:15 am

Agree with Ayesha‘s point and this is exactly what I’m proposing at my place. Even changing it to a degreeship or mastership will help.

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

‘It’s International HR Day – wait, you didn’t...

20 May 2022

Policeman dubbed ‘Dolly Parton’ for working Nine to...

20 May 2022

Adapt culture to hybrid work: do not force...

20 May 2022

Women in FTSE 350 leadership: ‘A lot of...

20 May 2022

City firms pledge to improve social mobility in...

20 May 2022

Squishy, flabby, foggy HR? Andrew Bartlow talks to...

20 May 2022

Movers and shakers May 2022: John Lewis and...

20 May 2022

City workers desert offices in favour of hybrid...

20 May 2022

Working from home statistics show three-fold increase

20 May 2022

Statutory sick pay reforms would save £4bn

19 May 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+