Apprentice Information - Regional Information

Apprenticeships in South Yorkshire
There are currently over 6,000 young people in South Yorkshire undertaking an Apprenticeship or Advanced Apprenticeship with 50 Training Provider organisations delivering that training.

The provision reflects the changing face of manufacturing and commerce in the county, which is no longer reliant on the ‘heavy’ industries, based on steel. Consequently South Yorkshire has one of the highest percentages in the region of apprentices training in business administration, with high numbers in service industries such as hairdressing and customer service. Despite this emphasis, there is still a demand for apprenticeships in engineering and the county has a significant number – the largest in the region - working in the ‘metals industries’.

The training provider network is Yorkshire Training Partnership (www.ytp.org.uk) but the website is not yet active (September 2007). However, if you would like further information about the network you can contact the network manager Andy Heseltine, or the office on 01709 763202.

South Yorkshire still has an LSC-sponsored website on which you can find details about all the training providers in the county and the Apprenticeships that they offer. The site is called LSC Directions and can be found at www.lscdirections.co.uk.

Other information on the Apprenticeships available in each district can be found in the Local Area 14-19 Prospectuses at the following addresses:

Aimhigher South Yorkshire
Who could sum up the activity of Aimhigher South Yorkshire better than the bard of South Yorkshire -Ian Macmillan:

AIM HIGHER!

(Chorus) I’d be a liar if I said that aiming higher
Was a simple thing to achieve in;
I’d be telling porkies if I said that South Yorkies
Found all this easy to believe in!

I guess it’s all a matter of history
Where a job was seen as better than a paper degree
Where getting your hands all covered in dirt
Was better than working in a crisp white shirt,
Where they siphoned you off to go down the pit
Or work in a foundry covered in detritus!
(Chorus)

So for years and years we were told this place
Was for the sweaty brow and the mucky face
And only the clever got education
Which, you’ll agree, is a daft situation!
But now we’re here to talk about success
South Yorkshire’s achievements, no more no less
With kids deciding that aiming higher

Can be the spark that lights the fire
With teachers embracing the simple truth
That we shout from the streets and proclaim from the roof
That life’s a matter of aiming high
And from here we can reach up to the sky!
(Chorus)

Building Pathways was one of the earliest projects established to enable progression from vocational and work-based learning to higher education pre-dating the launch of Partnerships for Progression. Its initial objectives can be found here. Further work included researching obstacles to apprentice progression to HE and initiating mechanisms to support progression.

That project developed to form the foundations for the South Yorkshire Lifelong Learning Network.

The earlier activities have now been encompassed into a new project called the Vocational Progression Project. Among its outputs have been events such as an FE in HE careers fair (Go Higher Stay Local) held at the Hallam Union Hubs, Teaching and Learning Events for Academic staff in HE and FE, aspirations raising work with Hallam Volunteers and selected partner colleges, development and updating of the HE in FE database (now attached as an added resource to the Apprentice Forward website) vocationally-focused careers progression events, such as those related to engineering, hospitality and IT, to name a few. VPP has been the main partner in conjunction with the West Yorkshire Apprenticesgohigher project in the updating and development of the Apprentice Forward Website.

For further details on the project’s work contact d.berry@shu.ac.uk.

Useful links
LSC Site

Connexions

South Yorks Lifelong Learning Network