On 23rd November, 3aaa’s Carly Pollard, Regional Apprentice Intake Manager for the East was lucky enough to attend Young Women’s Trust’s seminar in London on behalf of 3aaa.  The topic of the day was “making Apprenticeships work for young women”.  Attendees included, amongst others, training providers, employers, government officials and most importantly, young women with Apprenticeship experiences.

Those in attendance heard from speakers such as Margaret Mountford, a British lawyer, businesswoman and television personality best known for her role in The Apprentice. She spoke about her views on the challenges faced by young women at the start of their careers.  The rest of the morning was based around discussions and debate over the problems, the goals, and the possible solutions to help women get there.

According to Young Women’s Trust’s recent poll of more than 1,000 people, female Apprentices earn over £1 less an hour than male Apprentices. Over the course of a year, that equates to about £2000 less pay.  The reasons behind this are that young women are choosing Apprenticeships in traditionally lower paid sectors such as retail and administration rather than IT or Engineering.  Dr Carole Easton, Chief Executive of Young Women’s Trust says “It is staggering that in the 21st Century certain employment sectors are hardly welcoming any young women; less than 2% of construction Apprentices are female and less than 4% of engineering Apprentices. According to the same official figures, even in IT & Telecoms the figure only rises to 12%.” Carly had this to say about the gender imbalance “This is also true at 3aaa, with only 11% of our current IT Apprentices being female.  This does not mean that we should favour female applicants over male applicants, but we should be trying to achieve a gender balance.”

Carly took on the task of asking for ideas from Academies on how to increase the number of our female Apprentices last week and was particularly intrigued by Worcester Academy’s approach to this.  Georgina Cooke, explained that they call all of their Apprenticeships “Business Apprenticeships”.  The staff in this Academy emphasise the transferable skills and professional experiences that will be gained from all of our Apprenticeships despite programme or sector.  The individual would then select the specialism that suits them from the programmes on offer in that Academy. Perhaps the first step towards recruiting more female Apprentices is to neutralise the language we use to talk about our programmes.

More information will be coming out about this over the next few weeks, but in the meantime be aware that Young Women’s Trust also offer a free telephone coaching service called Work It Out, which helps 18-30 year old women build confidence and take steps towards work. You can access more information at

http://www.youngwomenstrust.org/what_we_do/services/work_it_out

You’ll now find a 3aaa Academy in BEDFORD, BIRMINGHAM, BLACKBURN, BRADFORD, BRIGHTON, BRISTOL, CAMBRIDGE, CHELMSFORD, CROYDON, DERBY, EXETER, GLOUCESTER, GUILDFORD, HULL, LEEDS, LEICESTER, LIVERPOOL, LONDON, MAIDSTONE, MANCHESTER, MIDDLESBROUGH, MILTON KEYNES, NEWCASTLE, NORTHAMPTON, NORWICH, NOTTINGHAM, OXFORD, PETERBOROUGH, READING, ROMFORD, SHEFFIELD, SOUTHAMPTON, STOKE, SWINDON, TAMWORTH, WARWICK, WATFORD, WOLVERHAMPTON, WORCESTER and YORK.

If you are an Employer looking to transform your business, email: EMPLOYNOW@3AAA.CO.UK or a young person looking to take your first steps into an exciting career in IT, Web & Social Media, Digital Marketing, Accountancy, Business Administration or Financial Services, email: APPLYNOW@3AAA.CO.UK.

Alternatively, find out more about our Apprenticeship programmes: 0844 504 3174 or www.3aaa.co.uk.