Happy Birthday, YHATA!
It’s hard to believe, but exactly one year ago this week, YHATA didn’t even exist! Our Director, Jo Lomax arrived in the last week of February 2010, to an empty office with just a single scoping document, a budget and bags of enthusiasm for the task ahead.
That task was to create the region’s apprentice training agency (ATA), bringing young people and employers together to create opportunities for developing the skilled workforce of the future. It was a massive challenge; the region is a huge one, taking in all of Yorkshire and Humber, and the brief was not restricted only to sectors traditionally associated with apprenticeships.
But Jo’s never one to be daunted by a challenge – even one on this scale – and she set to work bringing the vision to life.
Teamwork
Since Jo couldn’t do this alone, the first thing she needed to do was to build a team; of people that would share the passion and vision, and who would not be scared of working really hard to achieve results, fast.
So here we all are, 12 months on. Between the eight of us we’ve worked really hard, effectively starting up a brand new company, no mean feat in itself. But the results speak for themselves.
We’ve:
- Created the YHATA brand and philosophy, using our website as the starting point for our communications with potential apprentices and employers alike.
- Commissioned a bespoke CRM solution to house all our apprentice and employer information, so that we can bring the two together as efficiently as possible.
- Are developing an e-portfolio system for monitoring our apprentices’ progress.
- Worked with local employment forums such as JobCentre Plus, Connexions, Working Link, A4e and the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber to understand the market place and how we can best serve it.
- Engaged with over 150 employers throughout the region, talking to them about the benefits of creating their own apprenticeship scheme.
- Selected learning providers, ensuring they meet our required standards (they must have a minimum level 2 Ofsted, for instance) as well as providing our apprentices with a positive learning experience.
- Created contractual agreements to cover our key relationships (with apprentices, employers and learning providers).
- Best of all, though, we’ve got over 50 apprentices placed at the moment, with loads more in the pipeline. All of these will be progressing towards level 3 qualifications in the next 12 months, gaining vocational skills and valuable work experience – and they’re getting paid!
Looking to the future
So it’s satisfying to look back, but we’re very much focused on the future. We know that there’s so much more to do, so much more to achieve.
We’ll continue with our own work, engaging with employers, learning providers and young people to create apprenticeships in every sector, across the region.
But we’d like to be able to share our experiences, to inspire and encourage other further education providers to adopt the ATA model. Jo Lomax recently presented to members of the Association of Colleges, alongside the National Apprenticeship Service. Her message to this audience of college Principals and Vice Principals from around the country was clear. If they were thinking of creating their own ATA, they would need to design an employer-led, commercially-driven, self-sustaining model (albeit with access to some government funding) that is entirely focused on delivering results for its end-users: employers and apprentices.
YHATA's mission to share this message extends to other organisations, and we are also talking to the Association of West Yorkshire Authorities (AWYA) and YORbuild, amongst others, about YHATA’s experiences during the last 12 months, and how we can work with them to utilise our programmes.
Many happy returns
So, we’re indulging in a quiet moment of reflection just now, but not for long – there’s just too much to do. Happy Birthday, YHATA – here’s to an equally successful second year!