Apprentice bonanza

With more A-level students than ever before opting not to go to university - the channel has some rich pickings

According to research from a top apprenticeship firm QA Apprentices, the number of school leavers applying for IT apprenticeships is at an all time high.

Apparently there is a 108 per cent increase in demand for IT apprenticeships from school leavers seeking a route into tech careers, aside from the traditional university route.

The research follows the latest round of 'record' A-level results in the UK - where the usual pictures of fresh faced blonde and brunette female students celebrating straight A results adorn every front page of national and often local papers and websites.

There is no doubt that this is good news for our industry, with more and more firms realising the benefits of training their own batch of apprentices and bringing in raw talent from the ground up.

As I reported at the CompTIA ChannelCon event in Arizona last week, the younger generation of workers (known as the Millennials) are obviously more tech savvy than their Generation X predecessors, and are fiercely loyal to their employers, wanting nothing more than the business to do well so they can further their careers.

QA's research also revealed that there is a 40 per cent rise in the number of employers seeking IT apprentices.

So it all points to a positive future for the apprenticeship initiative.

i was lucky enough to not have to pay for university tuition fees when I went back in the dark ages, but if I were faced with £9,000 a year fees i too would look for an alternative way into the workforce. Times are very different these days and fair play to the youngsters that just want to get straight into work and earning a wage.

Just because you have a degree, doesn't mean you are the right person for the job - experience counts just as much.

I do wonder though how many more years the A-level results will keep going up - considering I took mine nearly 22 years ago (OH MY GOD!!), I must have been really thick, because they have improved EVERY single year since then.