Did you know that 68%, more than two-thirds of SMEs are currently facing skills shortages, rising to 86% of large organisations? The truth is skills shortages are increasing. One way to tackle this problem is through apprenticeships and professional qualifications.
The Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship is a great starting point for any business looking to get their processes aligned to their business goals. If one of your business goals is to reduce the skills gap or upskill your team, then you’ve struck gold!
In this article we will be sharing five key benefits of studying a Quality Practitioner apprenticeship and why apprenticeships can help your business to grow.
What is an apprenticeship?
You may have heard of the term ‘apprenticeship’ but do you really know what an apprenticeship is? Don’t worry, they aren’t just for college leavers or manual trade jobs. Phew, now we’ve buried those myths we can explain what an apprenticeship is.
So, an apprenticeship is a blend of a full-time job with training. Apprentices split their time 80/20. 80% of their working time is spent carrying out their day-to-day job responsibilities. 20% of their time is ‘off-the-job’ and spent working towards their apprenticeship qualification.
From August 1st 2022, the new minimum off-the-job training requirement for a full-time apprentice is 20% of a 30-hour week (even if the apprentice works more than 30 hours per week); this equates to an average of 6 hours of off-the-job training per week.
Apprenticeships provide businesses the opportunity to upskill and train their employees whilst taking advantage of the government funding through the apprenticeship levy. Right, so what does that mean exactly?
Simply put, businesses like yours can get from a minimum of 95% funding if your annual pay bill is less than £3 million, if it’s more than £3 million you must pay into the apprenticeship levy which you can use to receive 100% funding for an apprenticeship.
Training can take place using a variety of different methods, online, face to face, virtual via a Zoom link or some providers might deliver the training on your premises. At Whyy? Change we believe in giving our learners the best experience possible, delivering weekly face-to-face training at our training centre in Chapeltown Sheffield.
Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship Benefits
Now you know what an apprenticeship is and who the Quality Practitioner apprenticeship is for, we should probably let you know what the benefits are… Here goes…
1. Deploy effective Quality Practices
If you’re struggling to get to grips with your business processes and want to streamline your quality practices this apprenticeship will share the knowledge to deploy quality practices. In addition to confidently carrying out audits or inspections, interacting effectively with stakeholders to plan the quality delivery system for your business.
2. Master the art of Continuous Improvement
The Quality Practitioner apprenticeship will develop the use of quality tools and techniques such as PDCA, DMAIC, Process Mapping, Control Charts and Measurement System Analysis, and Pareto to improve awareness and quality performance including 6Sigma. With all that knowledge you’ll be continuous improvement Jedi in no time!
3. Influence your Organisation’s Strategy and Performance
Develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours to understand the context of your organisation better and influence the quality strategy with senior stakeholders required to make a difference.
4. Improve Efficiency, Safety and Customer Service
Deploying quality policies, measures and governance will protect the business from claims and financial damages for non-compliance. Processes will be improved resulting in a safer working environment and reduced waste. Having better quality management systems will improve management of customers and supplier performance.
5. Keep your auditors happy
With greater control over your quality processes, you can rest easy when it comes to external audits and inspections. Develop the skills and best practices to better understand the risk and compliance requirements both legally and from other parties.
Who is the Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship for?
Now you know what an apprenticeship is and the benefits that the Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship could bring to your business, you might be wondering who the Quality Practitioner is for and what roles are suited to this apprenticeship.
The Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship is designed to support those who are responsible for maintaining and governing quality standards, some of their job titles might be:
- Project Quality Engineers
- Supplier Quality Engineers
- Quality Assurance Officers
- Quality Managers
- Quality Technician
- Governance Officers
Benefits of choosing Whyy? Change as your Apprenticeship Training Provider
If you are wondering who delivers this apprenticeship training, then look no further. Here at Whyy? Change we add value in the form of additional qualifications and CQI membership status. Included at no additional cost, students will receive the following qualifications and benefits that many other providers don’t currently offer:
- CQI student membership registration
- Bureau Veritas Internal Auditing Principles Certificate
- Lean6 Yellow Belt certificate to ISO 18404:2015
- Delivered by our team of highly skilled practitioners
- Mentoring and well-being support
Interested in the Level 4 Quality Practitioner Apprenticeship? Get in touch.
