Businesses everywhere are looking for ways to upskill their staff, with senior teams sometimes being overlooked. Higher-level apprenticeships could be the answer you are looking for. Funded through your Apprenticeship Levy, or Levy Transfer, these apprenticeships will empower leaders and support your business to thrive.

You may already be using apprenticeships to support junior members of staff to gain new skills, but higher-level apprenticeships, or degree apprenticeships, can also be used to enhance the skills of your senior team, whilst simultaneously reducing senior staff attrition and supporting business succession planning.

For every business, the need for strategic planning and oversight is important and higher-level apprenticeships can be used to transform senior managers into confident and informed business leaders that can support further expansion of your business.

The courses bring together practical exercises, academic theory, and strategic thinking. This means that your senior manager, who already knows your business inside out, can turn theoretical ideas into practical actions, making a difference to the business quickly.

While taking time out of the business to undertake strategic thinking can be difficult with daily duties requiring attention, higher-level apprenticeships can give senior staff a holistic overview that they may not have had time to process. By working with peers from other industries the course gives senior staff the time to think differently, take on-board other viewpoints, and produce new processes, which can then be incorporated into your business.

As with other apprenticeships, higher-level apprenticeships can be funded through your Apprenticeship Levy, or if you are not a levy payer, the GBLSEP Skills Service can support you to access funding through Levy Transfer options. GBSLEP (Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership) is ensuring this senior level upskilling option is not out of reach for local businesses.

Ian Mclaughlan, director of Business Growth at GBSLEP, has recently enrolled on a Level 7 Executive MBA course through an apprenticeship route with Aston University. Ian told us: “So far, I’ve found the course has challenged me to think about how our organisation operates. Taking on pieces of work that will benefit my learning, and also the company, which I may not have been involved in otherwise. All modules are real world applicable which sparks ideas and different perspectives.”

“While it can seem a lot to take 20% of the week out of the business, I’ve really seen a benefit. The course work has made me consider things from a new standpoint and working with people from businesses in a variety of different sectors has given me a new perspective on how my organisation delivers and manages services.”

The GBSLEP Skills Service has seen an increase in businesses considering apprenticeships for all levels of staff. Each request has been supported to understand the courses and the training providers available. Funding has also been accessed through the Levy Transfer agreement in place with Birmingham City Council, so there is no cost to the employing business.

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