The Crown Commercial Service has appointed 16 training providers to a framework tasked with delivering apprenticeships for the civil service as part of the government’s new approach to on-the-job learning.
Capita Business Services, Interserve Learning & Employment, Cipfa Business, and the Open University are among the firms securing a place on the framework, which departments and agencies will be able to turn to without having to launch their own procurement exercises.
The framework is split into 12 lots, which range from leadership and management training to digital training, business and administration, and commercial services.
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Also on the framework are: Ashridge Executive & Organisation Development; Babington Business College; BC Arch; BPP Professional Education; Encompass Consultancy; Estio Training; GP Strategies Training; Kaplan; Lifetime Training Group; Premier Partnership; QA Limited; and University College of Estate Management.
Peter Lawson, strategic category director for people at the CCS, said six of the 16 firms appointed to the framework were small- and medium-sized enterprises that would be able to benefit from the apprenticeships drive.
“This agreement supports the government to train the next generation of public servants, who will eventually be responsible for delivering efficient, effective services that meet the needs of citizens,” he said.
Lawson added that the framework had been split into 12 specialisms to make it easier for SME providers to win places in their own field of expertise.
Whitehall is committed to creating 30,000 apprenticeships by 2020 as part of a national drive to boost vocational training contained in the Conservative Party’s 2015 general election manifesto.
That envisaged the creation of 3 million new apprenticeships over the course of the parliament, which prime minister Theresa May truncated with her decision to call a snap general election earlier this year.
The drive is being funded by the Apprenticeships Levy, under which employers with a staff of 250 or more have a duty to offer apprenticeships, based on the size of their business. The civil service’s target is based on delivering apprenticeship starts at an annual rate of 2.3% of its workforce.
Public sector bodies with an annual pay bill of more than £3m per year are required to invest 0.5% of their total staffing cost into apprenticeships, meaning that most public bodies are now required to have some kind of apprenticeship programme.
The CCS said employers would access funds through a Digital Apprenticeship Account controlled by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.