Airbus pioneers higher-apprenticeship qualification
A total of 18 young engineers at Airbus UK have become the first in Britain to complete a higher-apprenticeship programme.
Airbus pioneered the prototype higher apprenticeship in engineering technology in 2001, when it approached Semta, the employer-led organisation at the heart of the skills agenda for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies in the UK, to develop a bespoke programme to meet the company’s needs for engineers with skills and knowledge over and above the outcomes of the standard national modern-apprenticeship programme. The company began implementing the programme in 2002.
Semta established an employer-led higher-apprenticeship steering committee in 2003 to develop the Airbus model into a national programme that would attract Government funding and recognition from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (formerly the Institution of Incorporated Engineers).
The higher apprenticeship in engineering technology was developed by the steering committee as a national programme and launched as a pilot in 2005 with funding in England from the Department for Education and Skills, Learning and Skills Council and Higher Education Funding Council for England, and in Wales from the Welsh Assembly, Department for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills,and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
Airbus’s programme at Broughton is managed and delivered by a partnership of Deeside College, North-East Wales Institute of Higher Education(NEWI) and the Airbus training department. During their first year, the apprentices gained a BTec national certificate in aero-engineering (mechanical),along with five key skills at level 3 (communication, application of number, IT,working with others, improving own learning and performance), employment rights and responsibilities and an Institute of Leadership and Management qualification at level 3. They went on to develop their skills and experience at Airbus,gaining a level 4 National Vocational Qualification in engineering manufacture,and completed the new foundation degree in aeronautical engineering(manufacture) through day release. Now, in another UK first, the apprentices have progressed to the third year of a full honours degree in aeronautical engineering.
Sir Alan Jones, Semta chairman, said: “The higher apprenticeship in engineering technology has been spearheaded by Airbus and each recipient should be proud of the fact that he or she has been part of this pioneering group. They have created an excellent model, which, I am pleased to say, has now been developed for use by other engineering employers. For all of us in the engineering and manufacturing industry, it is vital that we develop higher-level skills and knowledge, and programmes such as this are a key competitive way forward.”
Gary Griffiths, manager of apprenticeship programmes at Airbus UK, said:“I am extremely proud of the achievements of these young professional engineers. Throughout their apprenticeship they have also been heavily involved in other enrichment activities, including our intercultural-competency programme and the apprentice innovation charity challenge.”
Semta’s role as a sector-skills council, licensed by the Government, is to raise skill levels and competitiveness in the 75,000 businesses and two-million-strong workforce that makes up the aerospace, automotive,bioscience, electrical, electronics, engineered-metal products, maintenance,marine, mathematics, mechanical and metals sectors.
