Impressive apprenticeship figures and the importance of coaching

The Skills Funding Agency have just released the final end of year apprenticeship starts figures and it’s fantastic news for Wiltshire.

As you know our target for 2015-16 was 5,600 but we have achieved 6,440 starts, which is even higher than the target number for 2017-18, which is 6,300.

This represents a growth of 19.5% in Wiltshire.  Swindon had a growth of 7.3%. Wiltshire’s statistical neighbours on average had growth of 2.6% with some actually seeing a reduction. Compared to all the Local Education Authority’s nationally, Wiltshire had the second largest growth, only being beaten by Darlington who saw an increase of 26.1%.  

The figure is provisional and we don’t have a full breakdown yet in terms of age, sector and so on. However it is the officially published figure from the SFA but we won’t get the break downs for a while so it is hard to analyse what has made the difference this year, but clearly we are on the right track with the comprehensive programme of work, development and support for business and our colleges which we have in place. 

I am keen that we ensure these opportunities are open and available to our looked after children, so will be making this a personal goal over the next twelve months.

New coaches required. Since 2013 we have had a successful programme offering coaching to all managers and staff supporting them to achieve positive outcomes. We currently have a pool of 19 qualified coaches and due to increasing demand we are looking to offer the opportunity to five people to undertake a level 5 qualification in coaching and mentoring and become a part of the pool. 

Coaching (and mentoring) is a very important part of the role of all managers and leaders. I currently coach five junior managers and staff from across the organisation and it’s a chance for us to be part of growing the skills, capabilities and talent that the organisation needs to become more successful and to deliver its business plan. It’s also a lot of fun too as well as contributing to our own personal learning and development.

For further information please go to Coaching - the way forward in HR Direct and read the section, Becoming a coach for Wiltshire Council. All applications need to be returned to Amanda.Collyer@wiltshire.gov.uk  by Monday 31 October 2016.

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