Of course, that would be stupid, so why the headline?  Well, lets start by understanding who actually can do apprenticeships and clarify a few things. Then we can discuss why cats and dogs are actually relevant. 

As a provider of apprenticeships, I spend my days talking to employers. Without fail, every day, somebody says to me “We are not recruiting at the moment, and we don’t want school leavers, we want somebody more experienced” Well firstly, school leavers are great, passionate to learn and in certain roles, say Digital Marketing, have a better grasp on what’s needed than us geriatrics!  Secondly, I then have to share that the term ‘Apprenticeships’ means learning whilst you have a job.  So, by definition that opens up a whole new raft of eligible people… 

Basically, anyone who is employed (on PAYE), has a line manager and works in England can potentially start an apprenticeship. I say potentially because of course there are I’s to be dotted and T’s to be crossed, but in simple terms that’s it. Oh, and of course, they have to be human – no cats and dogs. 

Existing staff, new staff, old staff, Senior Managers, Chief Operating Officers, new starters, school leavers and even people who train cats and dogs all can learn while they earn. 

Suddenly that opens up training and qualification to all your employees! Yes, all of them! And here is the deal clincher – The government will pay 95% of the cost of the training course, it’s a no brainer. Well so you would think.  But when I tell you that over the past few years 3.4 billion (yes BILLION) pounds went unspent in this fund simply because of the misconception of the term APPRENTICESHIP. Employers didn’t know, so employers didn’t sign up their staff, so the money went back to the treasury. Personally, I think it would be much better used on what it was meant for – YOUR BUSINESS! 

Right, with that cleared up let’s get back to our furry friends and how they are relevant to apprenticeships!  

Last week I was observing a Digital Marketing lesson with some of our new learners.  The subject, Bloggs.  Here are some of the facts that were discussed. 

1. 71% of marketers report that content marketing has become more important to their organization in the last year (Content Marketing Institute). 

1. 76% of content marketers use content to generate leads (Parse.ly). 

1. There are more than 600 million blogs out of 1.9 billion websites worldwide (Web Tribunal). 

1. 77% of internet users read blogs (Social Media Today), and nearly 26% of people in the U.K. aged 5–18 are reading blogs (Statista). 

1. 80% of bloggers report that blogging drives results (Orbit Media). 

And finally – Bloggs about Cats and Dogs are the most read- globally.  So, if you want to get an important message across remember CATS AND DOGS CAN’T DO APPRENTICESHIPS 😊 

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