As a partner of the UnLtd led apprenticeship trailblazer, SFEDI are pleased to announce that the Department for Innovation, Business and Skills has approved the apprenticeship standard for entrepreneurs.

For today’s youngsters, apprenticeships are big news. Presenting the opportunity to learn how to be anything from a railway signal engineer to a retail manager, a snowboard instructor to a childcare professional, an apprenticeship is a brilliant way to begin a career and learn valuable skills without becoming saddled with debt. Other big news in the world of work right now is that more and more people are looking to the entrepreneurial life for the fulfillment, autonomy and flexibility it provides. Additionally, employers themselves are looking to recruit people with solid enterprise skills, like the ability to spot an opportunity, work on their own initiative, think laterally and be adaptable. It makes sense then that there should be an apprenticeship for entrepreneurs.

Following our previous work on the Level 3 enterprise apprenticeship framework and Level 5 innovation and growth framework SFEDI joined other leading enterprise organisations and some 100 employers to be involved in the entrepreneur ‘trailblazer’ group. Trailblazers is a Department for Innovation, Business and Skills initiative that brings together groups of employers and experts to make apprenticeships the best they can be for every industry, the objective being to make apprenticeships an attractive, valuable recruitment option for all sorts of employers.

The enterprise apprenticeship trailblazers group was led by UnLtd and included, amongst others, SFEDI, Impact Hub King’s Cross, the Federation of Small Business and the Centre for Entrepreneurs. The group spent six months developing the national standard for the enterprise apprenticeship. The result is a rounded and rewarding Level 4 apprenticeship which participants will typically take two years to complete. Before the apprenticeship can ‘go live’ an assessment framework must be developed, which will underpin the on-the-job training apprentices receive and provide them with a set of solid qualifications. It’s expected that the first people to enroll onto the apprenticeship’s pilot scheme will do so from early 2017.