The success of National Apprenticeship Week 2023
Jonathan Foot, Head of Apprenticeships & Early Careers – Compass Group UK & Ireland
Last week we celebrated the 2023 National Apprenticeship Week. It gave us all the opportunity to shout about the diversity and opportunities that apprenticeships offer across our industry.
It was a great week – kicking off with us announcing that we had launched our second cohort of chefs taking on the Forward with Marcus Wareing programme. We’ve taken learnings and feedback from the first cohort, to further enhance and build on the course, as well as have the first group mentoring new participants.
We were very proud that HIT training announced that we had won the Large Employer of the Year and our very own Jodie Plummer was named Chef Apprentice of the Year, in the HIT Hero awards 2022. This demonstrates the growing strength of our partnership work with them across our apprenticeship programmes. We became patrons of The Multicultural Apprenticeship Alliance, with the aim of further promoting social mobility, equality, diversity, inclusion, and equity in apprenticeships. Plus, I was very pleased to see Dylan Patel taking part in The Big Assembly, which was broadcast to thousands of people across the UK, when he talked about his experience as an apprentice.
We also took the opportunity to launch Compass Group UK & Ireland’s People and Communities report, which demonstrates the huge value we bring as an organisation. It was great to see the importance our apprenticeships and training bring to this area of our work.
We had several of our senior leadership and executive team going ‘Back to the Shop Floor’, to shadow an apprentice and learn more about their roles. The feedback has been excellent from everyone involved, so it has been a really worthwhile exercise.
One of the highlights of the week was a team of our apprentices cooking at The Brits on Saturday night. This is a much sought-after experience, so it was great to see the brigade there supporting on such a high-profile event and they did a brilliant job!
I always love having the opportunity to shine a light on the apprentices and the opportunities we offer, so National Apprenticeship Week has given us all the chance to celebrate our successes and look ahead to another year of progressing this agenda further. These programmes really do have the power to change lives and I would encourage anyone thinking about taking on an apprenticeship to get in touch with our team!
To find out more about Compass Group UK & Ireland’s apprenticeships - Career Pathways | Early Careers | Compass Group UK&I (compass-group.co.uk)
