12 week apprenticeships still advertised

Despite increased criticism in what the Chief Executive of the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) called ‘hot-housing’, many short NVQ and apprenticeship programmes are still being advertised.

In June FE Week reported on the rise of 12 week apprentices, and referred to the call centre training provider Synapse. Since then the Synapse website simply states: “Synapse is no longer recruiting apprentices”, but short programmes continue to be advertised by others.

The Security Training School Limited, a subcontractor to Leeds and Newham Colleges and Durham University, advertise two day fully funded NVQs as well as 12 week apprenticeships (see picture).

Lord Grove, Managing Director at The Security Training School said: “I believe that concerns regarding the duration of apprentices courses are in many cases well founded, but each circumstance should be assessed fairly on its own merits.

“Technical apprentice courses involving trades are far more in-depth and require greater study, than the spectator safety courses we run for example, but that is reflected in the weighting of funding involved.”