Congratulations Tom & Emma!
Our amazing colleagues, Emma Horne and Tom Bartlett both received highly commended in the West Midlands region of the National Apprenticeship Awards 2021.
Emma Horne, Performance Director, was awarded highly commended for ✨Apprenticeship Champion of the Year✨
Tom Bartlett, Head of Central Operations, was awarded highly commended for ✨Rising Star of the Year✨
We would also like to congratulate our Level 7 Senior People Professional Apprentice, Lauren Carroll from Mitchells and Butlers for winning Higher Apprentice of the Year in the West Midlands category.
Are you a Senior People Professional Apprentice at Crosby?
We have a rare opportunity for an SPP Apprentice to become a Crosby Apprentice Governor and a member of our Quality and Performance Board. It’s an opportunity to develop the strategic skills and behaviours in your standard and will be a huge boost for your cv.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON HOW TO APPLY
INCENTIVE EXTENSION
The apprenticeship incentives were first introduced by the Chancellor in August 2020 and following the success of the initiative, they were increased to £3,000 for all newly employed apprentices in February 2021. In the recent budget it was announced that the incentives scheme would again be extended to 31st January 2022.
If your new colleagues were employed between 1st October 2021 and 31st January 2022 and start on their apprenticeship journeys during this period then you will be eligible for the £3,000 incentive in addition to the existing £1,000 incentive available for all apprentices aged 16-18.
Drawing a close to our 2021 residential season!
Our dates for 2022 have been released! Scroll to the bottom to see our newly designed brochure, including the 2022 dates!
“Honestly, the residential has woke me up and made me realise I’ve been hiding in an ever shrinking comfort zone. Now I know I need to make some changes, I don’t think I came back the same person so thank you.”
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 2022 DATES!
Join our People Professions Team!
We have an exciting opportunity for HR/L&D professional(s) to join our passionate and supportive team of trainers.
We also have opportunities for CIPD assessors, so if you’d prefer to work flexibly as an Associate assessing CIPD qualifications that’s an option too!
CLICK HERE TO APPLY THROUGH LINKEDIN!
The impact of QAR…
As the final adjustments to the 2020-21 academic year are made by providers up and down the country in the October ILR submission, the impact of any status change to apprentices throughout the year becomes apparent when the end of year Qualification Achievement Rate (QAR) is generated by the ESFA. The QAR is a figure expressed as a percentage that represents each provider’s performance and is calculated as follows:
The impact on a provider of apprentices withdrawing from their programmes is significant as providers require 2 completers for each apprentice that withdraws just to maintain its score.
Providers are tasked by the ESFA with achieving a QAR of 62% each year. Failing to do so can result in sanctions being placed on providers which can ultimately lead to the provider losing its contract to deliver apprenticeships. The QAR is impacted by historical leavers dependent on their Planned End Dates e.g., an Apprentice leaving programme on 31st January 2021 with a planned end date of 2nd August 2021 will be classed as a leaver in the next year i.e. 2021/22 academic year (August 2021 – July 2022). At Crosby, we like to celebrate those employers whose QARs are consistently above the ESFA standard. Several employers across our apprenticeship programmes have demonstrated in the last 12-24 months an exceptional QAR and those worthy of congratulations in this newsletter are:
- Provenance Village Butchers – achieved a QAR of 80%
- Mitchells & Butlers PLC – achieved a QAR of 87.5%
- EON Energy – achieved a QAR of 100%
Well done and thank you to these excellent employers who managed to set such a great standing during what was the strangest year as a result of the global pandemic.
Department News!
Butchery & Food
Our participation in Sky News!
Crosby Butchery Training were approached by Sky News at the beginning of October to help on a piece about the national shortage of butchers. Our Level 3 apprentice Jack Western played a crucial part in explaining about the industry and the opportunities for a new generation to learn a high-skilled trade and fill the gaps left behind.
Our Business Development Consultant, Mike Whittemore added “It’s not new news that there’s a shortage, but we’re in a better place than we were five years ago.”
Our new apprenticeship standard Supply Chain Practitioner (FMCG) is officially LIVE, with our first enrolment planned next week! This apprenticeship includes an imbedded diploma. This Level 3 apprenticeship is suitable for those in a junior/supportive role building their opportunities to progress towards a more managerial role.
Contact Mike for more info!
We also attended the Meat Management Awards evening in September, and what an amazing evening it was! Big congratulations to Craig Henderson (L3 apprentice) for being a finalist in Young Manager of the Year and to the Butchery Team for being a finalist in the Training Scheme of the Year!
We also have our trainer, Tara McCaffrey, a finalist in the Women in Meat Awards being announced this month!
Aviation, Leadership & Management
International Leadership Week
This years theme is “Leadership re-invented”. After a strange (to say the least!) two years traditional leadership has taken a back seat.
Join our lead trainer, Heather Churchill and high-profile leaders across the globe sharing their best practice and thought provoking discussions on the new “Leadership”.
Crosby continue to support their colleagues by upskilling and opening their opportunities through further education.
Most recently, our Lead Butchery Trainer, Chris Riley has enrolled onto his Level 5 Operations/Departmental Manager Apprenticeship.
We are proud to be supporting Aviation Action in their aims to offer hundreds and thousands of aviation colleagues get back on their feet if they are facing difficult times both personal or professionally. They have now raised over £9,000 to help mental health and wellbeing support to the Aviation community.
CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW YOU CAN HELP
Did you know in an effort to champion Diversity and Inclusion, British Airways have moved to gender-neutral terms in order to allow all travellers to feel respected and included. How amazing!
Education & Learning Support
Our ELS team will be at the Schools & Academies Show this November at the Birmingham NEC. We’ll be reaching out building relationships with Schools and Academies and building awareness of the Education-Based Apprenticeships our amazingly qualified trainers deliver at Crosby.
Will we see you there? Come and see us a stand E42!
Have you heard about our new Learning Management System?
Crosby made a huge step earlier this year transitioning and implementing a new MIS and LMS system, called BUD.
This will help us provide even better quality training with an easy access, simple to use platform for all of our learners.
ELS will have their first cohorts in:
Learning Skills Teacher
Teaching Assistant
Assessors Coach
going LIVE this month!
Welcome Matthew & Amandeep
This quarter we welcomed Matthew, our new Functional Skills Trainer:
Matthew has always been involved in the development of peoples skills, whether through SME training programmes that he helped set up and run, then as a qualified teacher with 14 years experience of teaching in both secondary and the rehabilitation of prisoners.
And Amandeep, our new ELS Trainer:
Amandeep is a qualified English teacher with 5 years experience both working in schools and for numerous training providers, particularly delivering apprenticeship standards. She has gained a PGCE where she holds QTLS status, she is also qualified in learning and development with a CIPD qualification and is a qualified careers advisor.
We will also be soon welcoming Rosie McIntyre and Jade Francis to the Functional Skills team!
People Professions
CIPD Standalone Qualification
Not enough time? Not the right employer? Independent worker? Sometimes the apprenticeship route isn’t for everyone…
We will be starting our CIPD stand alone qualification cohort in the new year.
Recognise this?
The CIPD are ending the use of their “CPD Map”
We’re advising all members to download what they want to keep before Monday 22nd November 2021.
The new CIPD self assessment tool will be launching at the start of November.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR MAP!
The L5 HR Consultant Partner Standard will be changing next year….
Earlier this year the IfATE granted special dispensation to include the new CIPD qualification in the L5 HR Apprenticeship Standard replacing the outgoing CIPD qualification. This dispensation was granted on the condition that the Standard and Assessment Plan would be fully reviewed with changes approved by 30 June 2022.
Our Performance Director, Emma Horne, is Chair of the Trailblazer Employer Group and is now seeking employer representatives who would like to be part of a core group to review and update the Standard. Please contact emma@waltersmith.co.uk if you’d like to be involved or secretariat@waltersmith.co.uk. It will be a great opportunity to share your views on how the Standard is working for your organisation and what needs to be changed to ensure it is still fit for purpose and develops the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed by employers in this occupation.
Many of you are already members of the Trailblazer Group so will be hearing from Emma soon.
