Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers 2020

There are now over 100,000 organisations in England who employ apprentices, which is an absolutely brilliant milestone for the country to have achieved. This does however mean that it can be a little overwhelming when it comes to choosing the right apprenticeship, which is where the new ‘league table’ for top employers comes into its own.

The ‘Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers’ celebrates outstanding employers for their commitment to hiring apprentices, putting them through great training programmes and then offering career progression or further studies. The rankings have been developed by the National Apprenticeship Service in partnership with High Fliers Research, who have independently assessed the companies to produce this league table. Employers from all industries and sectors are eligible to apply to be ranked, which means this league table will offer a great overall comparison for people who are weighing up their options.

The top three apprenticeship employers for 2020 are:

1. British Army
2. HM Revenue and Customs
3. Royal Navy

This is a pivotal move to rank employers and a wonderful way to help push forward the apprenticeship route as being such a great option for early careers. We’re all familiar with university league tables, and I think it’s a huge step forward acknowledging leading apprenticeship providers. These rankings will be reviewed annually, and will be based on the employers’ performance over the previous 12 months. I think this is going to help so many people make informed decisions about their career, whether it be young people or people who are having a career reboot. It will also become a vital resource for schools and colleges to help them give the best advice possible to their students.

I’m a huge advocate for apprenticeships, having joined JCB on their higher apprenticeship scheme back in 2015. As part of my apprenticeship I completed my Foundation Degree, NVQ Level 4 and Bachelor’s Degree all while working four days a week. It was hard work trying to study and work full time at the same time, but it was great being able to put the theory I learned at university straight into practice at work. I had wonderful support from my team and management at JCB through my apprenticeship, and I was given so many exciting projects to get stuck into so I could further my personal and professional development.

I also had the great experiences of being nominated for various apprenticeship awards, which is another brilliant side to being a part of a leading apprenticeship scheme. There are some fantastic organisations who are keen to acknowledge high achievers, and it really motivated me to be the best apprentice and engineer that I could. The highlight of this for me was being invited down to London for the EEF Future Manufacturing Awards in January 2019, after I was named Midlands Regional Engineering Apprentice of the Year in 2018. This was an amazing experience to hear inspiring stories from fellow attendees, and after being named National Runner Up I have had some great other opportunities come my way.

The awards process is something I think is such a good experience to go through, and it did my self confidence the world of good. It pushed out my comfort zone and it helped me start to overcome doubts that I was going to make a good engineer.

I would wholeheartedly recommend going down the apprenticeship route, particularly if you are interested in a field like engineering where there are so many different options for you. The chance to work full time whilst having your education paid for is a huge bonus, but the invaluable early career support and guidance you get as part of the apprenticeship really makes all of the hard work and late nights worthwhile!

The full list of the top 100 apprenticeship employers can be found at: https://www.topapprenticeshipemployers.co.uk/files/Top-100-Apprenticeship-Employers-2020-list.pdf

I would love to hear your thoughts on apprenticeships, what route did you take to get to where you are in your career? Reach out to me at thefemaleengineerblog@gmail.com if you would like to discuss anything I’ve spoken about.

Emilie

The Female Engineer