National Apprenticeship Week 2025: Building on success
Jonathan Foot, Director of Skills and Early Careers at Compass Group UK & Ireland
It’s wonderful to be back celebrating National Apprenticeship Week for another year. It’s a perfect opportunity to showcase the incredible career options within hospitality, a truly barrierless industry.
Apprenticeships are a key part of our Social Promise commitment, striving to create opportunities for everyone to develop and thrive, and we’re incredibly proud of the work we do in this area to support people of all ages and levels.
Our apprenticeship programmes continue to go from strength to strength. Just last week we were shortlisted for Best Apprenticeship Strategy and Best Training Programme in the Springboard Awards for Excellence 2025. This follows our success at the end of last year, when we were named Large Employer of the Year at the Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards, in recognition of our dedication to attracting and supporting apprentices from diverse backgrounds.
We have an exciting line-up of events planned to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week. Firstly, we’re the proud Headline Sponsor of the Big Assembly - the UK’s largest live-streamed event dedicated to apprenticeships - taking place on 11 February at Xcelerate with Edgbaston. This is a fantastic opportunity to explore apprenticeships from various perspectives.
Additionally, our teams have collaborated with ITN to produce a short video highlighting our commitment to apprenticeships, which will feature as part of one of their programmes in partnership with UCAS and Association of Apprenticeships. The video includes interviews with team members about their career journeys, and you can watch it in full on our social media channels from tomorrow.
This week also marks the first anniversary of Xcelerate with Edgbaston, which has been pivotal in delivering high-quality training by our delivery and community partners and supporting people from the West Midlands Combined Authority into opportunities within Hospitality.
On the 13th, we’ll celebrate this milestone with a special event where Apprentice Chef of the Year 2024 finalists will serve a delicious lunch for our partners, guests, and local dignitaries.
This is always a busy time for us, as we make it a special week of pride and recognition for our apprentices and the amazing teams supporting them. Keep an eye on our social media channels, as we’ll be sharing stories, highlighting achievements, and showcasing the positive impact made by our 600+ apprentices.
While it’s good to have a week where we focus on apprenticeships, we celebrate our apprentices throughout the year. Our programmes and our apprentices continue to develop and flourish, and we’re looking forward to what the future holds.
You can find out more about our apprenticeship programmes and vacancies here: Career Pathways | Early Careers | Compass Group UK&I
