As a follow up to the Chamber’s ‘Audience with George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’ event on the 7 November, we submitted a number of questions from our members to the Chancellor. Responses to those questions are now starting to be received from the relevant Ministers within Westminster.
Robert Ashton is Chief Executive of Swarm Apprenticeships who are currently based in Wymondham. They have been members of the Chamber for just over 6 months.
Roberts question to the Chancellor was:
“The Prime Minister’s recent announcement that reformed apprenticeship will be employer led is a welcome response to the excellent Richards Review. However the initial eight ‘trailblazer’s’ are all corporate led by and will inevitably focus on growing apprenticeship employment in large organisations.
I would like to see Norfolk given the opportunity to develop a rural trailblazer. We already have the SFEDI qualification which was created in response to small business demand. At Swarm we also have the active support of the Norfolk Chamber, FSB and City College Norwich. Add the other Group Training Associations and Apprenticeship Training Agencies developing here we can lead the way to creating a new model of apprenticeship delivery in a rural area. Would you support Swarm to create a rural trailblazer in Norfolk?”
Find on the attached document the written response from the Department for Education.
