The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) welcomes the opportunity provided by Apprenticeship Week to raise the profile of and encourage more employers to take on apprentices, however feels high performance workplaces need to look beyond basic skills. Employers should provide all staff with access to higher level soft skills training such as communication and leadership to remain competitive in today’s UK’s knowledge economy.

John McGurk, CIPD’s Learning, Training and Development Adviser said: 

“With an increasing number of UK organisations facing acute recruitment and skills shortages, many employers see skills training as a means of addressing these. Apprenticeships provide employers with the opportunity to meet these skills demands and at the same time provide personal development for employees. The government has done much work promoting the skills agenda especially levels 2 and 3, yet we would like to see a focus on building higher level skills. Employers need to step up to the demands of a knowledge economy and train all their staff with both basic and soft skills.

“Whilst qualifications are important and central to up skilling employees, they do not automatically make people more productive. Only when skills development is underpinned by good people management such as job appraisals, reward, flexible working and good communication can training be effective. “

The CIPD is concerned that small- medium enterprises which provide the majority of apprenticeships lack the financial support they need. The government should re-examine the tax agenda especially capital gains tax with a view to offering tax relief on train to gain schemes.

Case Studies

Network Rail, winners of the CIPD’s people management award introduced a new apprenticeship scheme for railway engineers as part of a drive to meet its need for multi-skilled technicians able to provide a top class, safe railway system. The scheme equipped the maintenance function with new skilled people to deliver technical expertise and provided personal development for its apprentices. For more information Network Rails winning entry please contact the CIPD press office.

Key facts and figures on training from the CIPD

·         Two thirds of employers feel that raising the proportion of UK adults with at least level 2 equivalent skills qualifications should be a priority for government policy

·         A quarter of organisations provide all staff with training in any given year

·         Two in five those who do provide training doing so for at least half of all their staff

·         The average training spend per employee is £272. In the voluntary sector this raises to £375 per employee

·         On average every employee spends 5 days year training

·         40 % of employers picked out on the job training as the most effective way to help people learn at work

·         81% of organisations use on the job training and 61% use in house development programmes

·         58% of employers say that help with funding of training would increase their level of contact with public training agencies

·         Employers want agencies to be more responsive to their needs and operate with less bureaucracy (50%)

·         One in five companies provide training in literacy and numeracy

·         72% of organisations have a training budget

·         Those employing less than 250 people spend far more per head on training than those with more than 10,000 employees

Notes to Editors:

·         To arrange an interview with John McGurk, CIPD Learning, Training and Development Adviser, please contact Meera Vohora or Hannah Smith on:  020 8612 6400 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

·         The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has over 130,000 members and is the leading professional institute for those involved in the management and development of people.

·         A copy of the CIPD’s Learning and Development survey 2007 is available at www.cipd.co.uk/surveys. The Learning and Development survey 2008 will be launched at the CIPD’s annual learning and development conference HRD, 14-17 April 2008. For a press pass please contact Anna Wallace on 0208 6112 6339 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.cipd.co.uk/hrd for further information.

·         For more information on Apprenticeship week, log onto: http://www.ssda.org.uk

·         Take part in our online poll  on apprenticeships please visit www.cipd.co.uk/publicpolicy

Press enquiries:

Hannah Smith / Meera Vohora / Anna Wallace

Tel: 020 8612 6400

Mobile: 07793 256 763
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Website: www.cipd.co.uk/press