2021 was a huge year for Amazing Apprenticeships with our audiences growing, our team expanding, our work accelerating, and partnerships developing, with even more exciting new collaborations set for 2022.
Despite restrictions, the human element remained incredibly important. So much of our work revolves around ensuring connections are built on, audiences engaged, and opportunities maximised for everyone we work with.
Passion, pride, interest and achievement is central to the Amazing Apprenticeships team. It’s all too easy to just focus on figures and, while the figures are pretty amazing, we’d also like to reflect a little on just a few of our favourite achievements of 2021.
There were so many big moments from last year, it’s difficult to know where to start! So, we asked the team and below is just a small snapshot of some of our collective favourite moments.
We have to start with National Apprenticeship Week 2021 which was a brilliant way to kick the year off. We were the busiest we have ever been with downloads breaking records and all of our audiences coming together to celebrate the biggest week of the sector with us – our aim now is to make NAW2022 even bigger!
During NAW we launched a subgroup of the Youth Employment Group, leading a collective of 100+ members from organisations such as The Princes Trust and the Premier League Charitable Fund, to engage in big policy discussions and thought leadership around apprenticeships and youth employment.
A month later we marked International Womens Day with a brilliant session alongside The RAF, whereby students and teachers from all across the UK were inspired by some of the highest-ranking and longest-serving female RAF staff to learn more about apprenticeship opportunities and employment.
The Genie Programme launched in May with leading multinational organisations joining our 12 month mixed-delivery programme to explore social mobility and place diversity and inclusion at the forefront of their early careers agenda. Our next cohort opens it’s doors in March!
Project Positive launched in June connecting employers with care experienced young people and offering support in how to explore the world of apprenticeships. The project is garnering national interest and we are looking to roll it out across the UK.
Throughout the year we hosted Time for Change workshops whereby leading organisations, individuals and apprentices took to our virtual stage to talk about social mobility, diversity and inclusion within apprenticeships. We have even more planned for 2022 including a very special session for NAW!
The Parent Perspective Podcast premiered over the summer alongside Not Going to Uni, as a brilliant way of helping parents to understand the opportunities open to their children. 2022 will see a brand-new season released.
We ran several Mental Health Awareness sessions for students, apprentices, teachers, carers and parents alike and we fully intend to continue to do so throughout 2022.
In September we launched our incredibly inspiring Apprentices are Amazing film series and are still releasing new episodes as we head into 2022. It’s been brilliant to be able to shine the spotlight on the amazing work apprentices do all around us, every day, and give insight into the wide range of roles available.
Add in the vast number of resources, quizzes, events and partnerships of the past 12 months, including work with the incredible Youth Employment UK, Careers and Enterprise Company, HomeServe Foundation, The Open University, The Sutton Trust, Social Mobility Commission, membership communities, employers and local organisations, it’s fair to say it’s been a busy year!
So now we look forward to 2022 and continuing to create meaningful connections, inspire and engage our audiences and ensure the incredible world of apprenticeships continues to be all it possibly can be.
If you would like to get involved with our initiatives, partner with us, sponsor resources or present ideas around the apprenticeship and skills agenda, the team would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us and we’ll see what 2022 holds together!