LevellerLive

Somerset County Council (SCC) has been listed among the top 100 employers of apprentices. The list compiled by the Department for Education looked at employers with a minimum of 250 employees and 25 apprentices. Each employer provided four key pieces of data:

• the total number of apprentices it employed in March 2022,
• the number of apprentices that started an apprenticeship with the employer from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022,
• the diversity of these new apprentices,
• and the number of apprentices that successfully completed apprenticeships during the year. And then went on to further employment with the employer.

All data was independently verified and scored and used to calculate the 2022 rankings.

Somerset was one of just three local councils listed in the top 100, coming in at 67th. The council was ranked ahead of global brands such as McDonalds, BP, Jaguar Landrover, Sainsbury’s, Santander Bank, Bauer Media and Christies Auctioneers. It is a great achievement for a council that gets its far share of criticism.

Cllr Liz Leyshon, SCC Executive Lead Member for Finance and Human Resources, was rightly proud. Though of course the work that resulted in the award was largely completed by the previous administration. She said: “It is great news that Somerset County Council has been named as one of the country’s most outstanding apprenticeship employers. Apprenticeships offer people the chance to gain the experience and skills needed to thrive in their chosen career while they contribute as a valued member of the Council’s skilled workforce. To be named in the Top 100 is testament to the hard work that has gone in to developing Somerset County Council’s excellent apprenticeship programme.”

To mark the occasion, apprentice Jess Cullen (she works in the Somerset Support Services for Education team) was invited to London. There she took part in a panel discussion for the YouTube broadcast of the Top 100 list. Jess (pictured right) is studying for her Level 3 Business Administrator apprenticeship.