Accenture to sell its IT apprenticeship scheme following mayor's push

GLA's preferred strategic partner Accenture launches scheme as part of mayor's wider strategy to encourage apprenticeships

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has called for London businesses to create their own apprenticeship programmes, and one of a number of companies supporting the challenge is IT services firm Accenture.

The company has launched its own apprenticeship scheme to its 1,100 UK BPO employees and it will aid their development within three key areas: business administration, IT and team leading and management.

All the BPO employees will be automatically enrolled in the scheme, and a further 200 new staff will be taken on and benefit from the scheme in the next two years.

The scheme will map the current skills and competencies of staff already in employment against those required in 12 to 18 months' time based on current contracts the company has secured for the period.

Accenture, which already acts as a training provider across England, Scotland and Wales, has worked with the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) and the National Employment Service (NES) to develop the scheme.

"We have taken a blended approach marrying an established apprenticeship scheme with one developed by Edexcel - a group that creates vocational qualifications that are promoted by NAS and NES," said a spokesperson for Accenture.

The scheme will be based on e-learning, with training requirements mapped out automatically using software from SaaS e-learning provider Skillsoft.

Accenture is looking to sell the scheme to its customers, and is in talks with several financial services organisations.

"Companies are reluctant to run apprenticeship schemes because they are time consuming to set up, administration must be compliant with government protocols, and line managers must devote a lot of time to them. This scheme avoids all those problems - both the setup and assessment are automated and remote, and it already complies with government protocols," said the spokesperson.

More broadly, Boris Johnson hopes to create over 20,000 apprenticeships in London and recently wrote to more than 100 of the capital's top companies to bolster apprenticeship levels.

He also recently spoke to 150 of the capital's leading financial service sector bosses at City Hall, joined by his "spprenticeship smbassador" Tim Campbell, and representatives from Accenture and the NAS, to learn about setting up apprenticeship programmes.