Tackling the skills shortage by making apprentices the focus

Published on March 9, 2015 in News

As National Apprenticeship Week kicks off, the challenge of ensuring employment for young people and, for the ICT industry specifically, addressing the skills gap, find themselves at the top of the corporate agenda once again.

We live in an increasingly digital world where more than a fifth of UK consumers always pick the “digital-first” option where available. This has put the IT industry firmly at the heart of the nation’s workforce. At Fujitsu, we are proud of the apprenticeship scheme we offer. Each year we offer at least 70 school leavers the chance to come and work with us. Providing them with a route into the burgeoning IT industry, we offer a variety of roles all designed to give apprentices a choice of careers.

As we move into 2015, we have decided to expand on our already successful scheme by adding degree apprentices to the programme. This will bring new opportunities to young people – ensuring we are fostering the careers of graduates as well as school leavers.

As you might expect, most of our roles are technical – we place apprentices in fields such as testing, software development and infrastructure. However we also have apprentices in HR, finance, project management, business analysis, printing and media design. The goal is to show them that a career in IT is a great way in to employment – no matter what field.

Running this scheme doesn’t just benefit the young people employed within it, Fujitsu as a company benefits hugely from the enthusiasm and fresh minds coming into the business. We would encourage every business – of any size and any sector – to put the same structure in place.

For more information about the Fujitsu apprenticeship scheme, please email us at apprenticeships@uk.fujitsu.com.

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