Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2022 were signed as a true record.  There were no matters arising.

Briefing note

The Board considered a briefing note and presentation which provided an update on Coventry City Council’s internal Apprenticeship programme.

The Apprenticeship and Early Careers Team within People and Culture were responsible for managing the Council’s Apprenticeship Programme and delivering the actions set out in the Council’s Apprenticeship Strategy (details were given at  appendix 1 of the Briefing Note).

The team engaged with managers and services across the Council to identify opportunities to create new apprenticeship roles (Traditional Apprentices) and to match appropriate apprenticeship standards to existing roles to upskill current staff (Employed Apprentices). Further information apprenticeships and the difference between Traditional and Employed Apprentices were detailed in Appendix 2 of the Briefing note.

The presentation included information on:

• Traditional apprentices
• Employed apprentices
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Marketing and event attendance
• Incentive Payments
• Levy Transfer
• Work Experience
• Future Plans

The Board questioned Officers and received responses on a number of matters relating to the presentation, and made the following suggestions:

That Officers explore the possibility:

• To further develop partnership working with the Freemans Guild in respect of both their ‘Apprentice of the Year’ Awards and apprentices becoming involved in the Guild’s structure to help with their succession planning.
• To look at ways to improve presentation and content of the Apprentice Instagram account and to include using Facebook in their digital marketing strategy.
• To engage with local media in respect of promoting Apprenticeship Week and working in partnership with the Freemans Guild

Following discussion, the Board asked for further information on:

·  Current equality data

·  Data on information captured from exit interviews on quality of experiences.

·  Apprenticeship Levy Transfer – details of the SMEs

·  Comparative data from other local authorities.

·  Detailed data on the take up of apprentices in service areas

RESOLVED that the Board:

(a)  Continue to support the work and the achievement of the Apprenticeship and Early Careers Team within People & Culture in continuing to deliver a successful apprenticeship programme and outcomes for the Council’s apprentices in challenging circumstances throughout the pandemic.

(b)  Continue to support the aims of the Apprenticeship and Early Careers Team - in line with the Council’s Apprenticeship Strategy 2020-2022, to continue to increase traditional apprentice numbers beyond pre-covid levels in 2022 whilst maintaining a focus on quality, diversity and inclusion.

(c)  Request that Officers include benchmarking data in the  2022-2024 Apprenticeship Strategy.

(d)  Recommend that the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources investigate the possibility of reviewing the resource budget for the Apprenticeship and Early Careers Team, given the depth and breadth of work they undertake.

Briefing note

This item was deferred to a future meeting.

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Work Programme was noted with a suggestion that the recent decision at Council on 22 March 2022 (Council minute 87/21 refers) in respect of property purchases be followed up to scrutinise the financial implications.  Agreed that this would be added to the draft work plan of the appropriate Scrutiny Board/ Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

There were no other items of public business.