On 28 April 14:00 CEST, the European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) is organising the live discussion ‘How can employers be encouraged to establish apprenticeships? Understanding the barriers to implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises’.
Many employers are not aware of the benefits of participating in apprenticeship schemes. Some employers are also discouraged from hiring apprentices because of the perceived administrative, practical and financial costs, or because they think the schemes are not fit to their business.
And yet apprenticeships are an important part of national training and employment strategies, and a valuable route to give young people and employers the skills they need in modern economies.
This live discussion will examine the factors that have encouraged employers to set up apprenticeship schemes, the barriers they encountered, and how they can be addressed. In particular, we will examine the issue from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to understand how they can best be supported to establish effective apprenticeship schemes. Participants will also discuss what impact COVID-19 has had on employers’ view of apprenticeships.
The live discussion will be chaired by Dr Jeff Bridgford, Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London.
The following guests will participate in the panel discussion:
Dominik Jenewein, Managing Director of JEWA, member of the Austrian economic chamber (WKO), and spokesman of Tyrolean Junge Wirtschaft (Young Economy);
Ildikó Pataki, Education Policy Advisor for the Municipality of Reșița, Romania (EAfA member since 2020) and the Re-Edu Smart initiative;
Sílvia Miró, Training and Employment Director of Pimec (EAfA member since 2020), an employer organisation representing half a million SMEs and half a million self-employed in Catalonia;
Mirjam van den Broek, Senior Policy Advisor at the MBO Raad, the association of VET colleges in the Netherlands (EAfA member since 2018).