TOP 100 Apprentice Employer!!

We are thrilled to announce that on October 21st, we were recognized as the UK’s 28th BEST Apprentice Employer – a huge achievement among the 400+ entrants! This prestigious award looks at all size employers across all sectors making the judging process very unique as they ranked overall commitment to employing apprentices, the creation of new apprenticeships, the diversity of new apprentices, and the progression of their apprentices onto further apprenticeships and employment.

With such a specialist focus on our longstanding apprentice scheme, we feel extremely proud to have been recognized alongside some of the countries leading employers, such as M&S, The Royal Air Force & The NHS.

As this is the first year we’ve entered we were somewhat surprised to have placed so high given that a huge portion of entrants were macro, global organisations, some with over 1000 apprentices! We may not have 1000 apprentices, but a staggering 15% of our current employees are apprentices across our Leicester HQ Factories, Offices & our multiple central London Sites. Not only do we have a huge proportion of apprentices, but our retention rate is second to non, with almost every production employee starting their career at EE Smith as an apprentice! Our relationship with our primary provider Leicester College goes back an impressive 40 years & many of our current staff actually qualified all those years ago!

Peter Mucklow, Director, Apprenticeships, Education and Skills Funding Agency added: “During such a difficult year it is encouraging to see that apprenticeships continue to be critical to business performance and success. Today’s announcement shows that there are outstanding employers delivering apprenticeships across all sectors, and the Top 100 apprenticeship employer rankings rightly give recognition and thanks to those who have shown, and continue to show, huge commitment to apprenticeships. I look forward to seeing how these 100 employers use their status to showcase the many benefits of apprenticeships, whilst encouraging other employers to consider recruiting an apprentice.”