It’s a famous set of lyrics in the song “Sweet Child o’ Mine” but now young people everywhere will be asking themselves this very question. Where do we go after we finish our exams? Well there are a few different options.

Employment and University are clearly the most well known options but have you heard of Traineeships? Official figures released today showed that there are fewer than two applications made for each traineeship vacancy. This has raised concerns about a “general lack of awareness” of the government’s new flagship youth unemployment scheme.

A freedom of information (FOI) request from FE Week showed just 4,160 online applications were made for 3,480 traineeship vacancies in the eight months since the programme’s launch in August last year.  ~ Taken from this page on FEWEEK

We decided to test whether it really is lack of awareness causing the problem by asking our followers on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn if they had heard of them.

Shockingly, just two of the people had heard of them but they were not told in school or college about them. Everyone else was mystified but interested.

So why is there such a lack of awareness? We asked our Executive Manager, Janet Robinson, what she thought was the cause:

I have wanted to engage with schools to offer the Traineeship/Apprenticeship route for a long time now, but since the start of Traineeships in July 2013 there has been little uptake due to lack of understanding of what is on offer. I am not surprised there has been a small % of interest but pleased to finally see more marketing and emphasis being put in place in schools.

Well at SET when we see a problem, we work hard to solve it and in this case we have decided to explain what a traineeship is and try to raise that awareness by improving understanding.

What is a Traineeship? This quote from our very own Janet Robinson sums them up perfectly:

A Traineeship is a progression from leaving school for anyone who is not currently employed and wants to work towards engaging with employers or an apprenticeship opportunity. We find so often that young people do not really know what career path to take and a Traineeship provides the chance to test out real life working in an industry before committing to employment or 12 months of training. We have seen a transformation in our learners going through these programmes in confidence, and maturity as they gain a clear understanding of what employers are looking for.

So what are the benefits of a Traineeship aside from the ones mentioned above? We have listed some of the top ones:

• A Traineeship will put you in a better position to compete for an Apprenticeship or other job.
• You will be able to build your CV and get vital experience with local and national employers.
• Improving your English and Math’s skills will boost your chances of getting a job.
• Employers are at the centre of Traineeships to make sure you pick up the skills you need to do that job.
• At the end of the work experience placement you’ll get a job interview with the company if a role becomes available or a reference and an exit interview.

You may just be starting exams, just be finishing them or hard at work on them right now but if you are still undecided about where to go from here then Traineeships could be a great option for you.

If you want to find out more and to see if you meet the criteria please give us a call 01322 423 358 or send us an email [email protected]

Good luck to everyone doing their exams and we hope to hear from you soon.

Reproduced by kind permission from SET Training