Businesses and public sector organisations are being encouraged to take a positive approach to apprenticeships, work placements, and internships by the Council.
Apprentices have been working on the Riverside Development earlier in the year.
It follows the Cabinet approving new steps for the organisation to build upon the initial success of supporting people into work by agreeing an official policy committing to:
- Increasing the range of apprenticeships and placement opportunities, including for specific groups of people, like care leavers or those at most risk of long-term unemployment;
- Giving College and University students much needed employment experience to support them to stay in the area;
- A system of support, advice, and help to services within the Council to ensure recruitment, training, and induction for candidates is of a high quality.
Councillor Ben Stevens (Lib-Dem, Widcombe), Cabinet Member for Sustainable Communities, said, “The Cabinet is being positive in challenging our Services across Bath & North East Somerset Council to think creatively about how young people can be given apprenticeship and various work placement opportunities.
“This means we are playing a part in the development of the local workforce, giving people opportunities to people to flourish in their future careers, as well as giving them a chance to make a valuable contribution to delivering excellent services for the public.
“For those businesses and organisations who haven’t yet challenged themselves in a similar way, I hope that the Council’s example will inspire them to do so and make the best of the wealth of talent in our area.”
Working in partnership with local Further Education providers, the Council has employed 26 apprentices over the past year.
Jessica Newby completed an Apprenticeship in Cultural and Heritage Venue Operations with Wiltshire College, she said: “The apprenticeship programme was useful and gave me three month rotational placements in different departments providing an in-depth insight into how the venue operates. This taught me to be flexible and gave me experience of working with different teams and people, even picking up snippets of other languages to use in my job.”
