Blazing a Trail with #NAW19 National Apprenticeship Week 2019 #10kTalks

‘Blaze a Trail’ will be the theme for National Apprenticeship Week 2019 (NAW 2019), Apprenticeships and Skills minister Anne Milton announced today (13 December).

NAW 2019 will run from 4 to 8 March 2019.

The 12th annual National Apprenticeship Week, which will run from 4 to 8 March 2019, is a great opportunity to highlight the fantastic opportunities that an apprenticeship brings to employers, individuals and the economy.

The ‘Blaze a Trail’ theme will feature throughout the week to highlight the benefits of apprenticeships to employers, individuals, local communities and the economy.

As in previous years NAW2019 will see a range of activities and events being hosted across the country. We want to change the perceptions people have on what an apprenticeship is and who takes them up to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to take up an apprenticeship.

The week will also show the number of high quality of apprenticeships opportunities available at all levels around the country in a huge variety of sectors such as aviation engineering, finance and policing.

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Anne Milton said:

Blazing a trail is what being an apprentice is all about and will be our theme for National Apprenticeship Week 2019. Because that’s what’s happening up and down the country – apprentices and employers blazing a trail.

I want everyone to recognise the change that apprenticeships can bring – for employers blazing a trail to new markets, apprentices to new career opportunities and for colleges and training providers raising the skills levels for everyone.

Keith Smith, director, Education and Skills Funding Agency said:

I want the 12th annual National Apprenticeship Week to be the biggest and most successful, yet.

The theme for this year: Blaze a Trail is at the heart of what apprenticeships are all about. I really hope our partners feel as excited about it as we do and, like previous years, they will can get fully behind the Week.

We want everyone to consider hosting an event or activity so more people get to see and hear about the huge benefits apprenticeships can bring to employers, individuals and local communities.

National Apprenticeship Week 2018 was record-breaking, with 780 events taking place across England. The ambition of delivering a 10,000 talks movement – #10kTalks – to inspire the next generation of apprentices was exceeded, reaching over 33,500 people in over 300 schools across the country.

A further 130 schools hosted teacher-to-teacher talks, reaching an additional 2,300 adults, to support them to talk to their students about apprenticeships. The Big Assembly reached 20,000 young people with a live video stream, showcasing apprentices and employers sharing their apprenticeships stories.

Events also took place to celebrate International Women’s Day, apprenticeships diversity and a launch event with the BBC and Sutton Trust included the announcement of a new ground-breaking apprenticeship programme.

Richard Hamer, Education & Skills Director, BAE Systems added:

We have always supported National Apprenticeship Week. It’s a great, focussed way to showcase the many benefits of apprenticeships. For National Apprenticeship Week 2019 we will be celebrating our apprentices’ achievements through our own internal apprenticeship awards.

We’ve been a ‘trailblazer’ in developing new standards across the engineering sector and were delighted to hear that the theme for this year is ‘Blaze a Trail’. We have 2000 apprentices in learning and for 2019 will be recruiting more advanced, higher and degree apprenticeships across a wide variety of apprenticeship standards.