A chance to ‘earn and learn’; apprenticeships are a vital part of post-pandemic recovery and all of our public sector partners are demanding them: have a look here at how we’re helping at Match My Project

Businesses are already playing their part in creating apprenticeships. According to the latest government data, 572,210 people are currently enrolled on apprenticeships covering 170 industries.

But the challenge is considerable.

The UK economy is to contract 0.6% this year. Apprenticeships have been identified as catalysts for growth as we recover from the pandemic and enter a post-Brexit labour market.

More Social Value means more apprenticeships

Our customers in the public sector, particularly at the local level, are focused on creating apprenticeships and work placements.

These organisations, councils and housing associations – for example, are using Social Value to ask their suppliers to create new apprenticeships and work opportunities for local people.

But it’s not always easy creating these local opportunities.

The data shows that only 1.5% of the UK’s 4.4 million employers are taking on apprentices. This number needs to change if our economic prospects are to change.

Finding local people to fill your apprenticeships and work placements can be a struggle

MatchMyProject is an award-winning platform that matches suppliers and businesses with good local community projects.

The platform was recognised by the Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply (CIPS) as this year’s Best Initiative to Deliver Social Value through Procurement (for our work with Birmingham City Council).

The platform is a source of local community organisations – plugged into local networks, across local politics, and aware of local problems. MatchMyProject gives access to these organisations to suppliers and businesses looking for opportunities to deliver Social Value in their localities.

We are now introducing features which enable you to advertise apprenticeships and work placements that can be easily matched with local people.

You will be able to upload opportunities and receive candidate referrals from local community partners and, for the first time, self-referrals from individuals.

Posting your opportunity will be a quick process, with almost exclusively multiple choice questions, which has the added benefit of making opportunities easy to filter and sort for those accessing them.

And you’ll be able to manage all of this in one place.

PRO TIP: In the coming weeks we’ll be launching these new features. If you want to see a 2 minute preview of these new features, please let us know here and we’ll send it out right away.