In this episode of The Institute talks, we talk about the new guidance created by our apprentice panel, ‘raising the standards’.

In the podcast, our host Jonathan Mitchell, Deputy Director at the Institute was joined by Jamilah Simpson, former digital marketing apprentice at Google, Dillion Jones, electrician apprentice at Derry Building Service.

Launched by the Institute’s apprentice panel, the ‘raising the stands’ guidance sets out what to expect during an apprenticeship, welfare and wellbeing considerations, and recommendations for how training programmes can be tailored to give apprentices the best possible experience. 

Transcript

Jonathan Mitchell

Hello, I'm Jonathan Mitchell. I'm a deputy director at the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, and I'm your host for this podcast and today we're launching the raising the standards. Best practice guidance that's been written by The Apprentice panel for training providers and employers and also apprentices. To show them what really great looks like in apprenticeships and hopefully extend that really great practice that we've all seen in loads and loads of areas across the whole apprenticeship landscape. Today I'm joined by three members of the Institute's apprentice panel, they are Jamila Dillon and Amelia. So welcome Jamilah Dillon and Amelia. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Jamilah Simpson Sure. Hi everyone, I'm Jamilah. I'm a former Google Digital marketing apprentice. I'm now the programs associate at Multiverse, where we're building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training through apprenticeships. My role aims to provide apprentices with opportunities that lie outside their apprenticeship qualification, and day-to-day roles for personal and professional development. I will soon be moving into the creative industry to become a graphic design freelancer. I've always wanted to pursue a career in the creative world. So I thought now was the time to make that change and try something new.

Jonathan MitchellThat sounds amazing Jamila thanks so much. And Dillon over to you. Tell us a bit about yourself and what apprenticeship you're doing, what you're doing at work at the moment.

Dillon JonesHi everyone, I'm Dillon. I completed a four-year Level 3 apprenticeship to become an electrician. Once I completed it, I got offered a position in the office to become an electrical design engineer. Where I have just recently completed my Level 4. I'm potentially moving on to my Level 5 soon.

 

Jonathan MitchellThanks Dillon and also Amelia, you've also joined us today. Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about yourself?

Amelia RussellYeah, sure, so my name is Amelia Russell and I'm a governance and external affairs officer at the Institute and also lead on the apprentice panel and also have recently completed a Level 3 business administration apprenticeship.

Jonathan MitchellTerrific thanks so much and welcome to all of all of you. So I've got a lot of questions which we'll try and share to help demystify the raising the standards guidance that you guys have been working on. Dillon, I'll turn to you first what? What's the apprentice panel responsible for?

Dillon JonesTo me, the apprentice panel is responsible for challenging in reviewing the boards decisions. They make some key decisions for apprentices or whole throughout every industry and two times a year we have to update the board on what we do. Another thing that we do is we voice the opinion of current and previous apprentices. This is what we were trying to achieve with our survey in 2020.

Jonathan MitchellFantastic. So, moving on, Jamilah can you tell us a bit what were the key findings that you that you found from the apprentice panel 2020 survey?

Jamilah Simpson And so we received over 1000 responses to our 2020 apprentice panel survey, and there were four key main findings that we got from it. The first was that 85% of respondents had signed a commitment