Best in the borough

St Helens Chamber has announced that their apprenticeship achievement rates are the highest in the borough for the third year running, with 78.2% of their apprentices achieving their qualifications in 2017/18.

Recent data published by the Department for Education highlights the apprenticeship achievement rates of colleges and training providers across the country.

Locally in St Helens the average apprenticeship achievement rate is 67.9% and nationally it sits slightly lower at 67.3%, so this is an outstanding achievement for St Helens Chamber’s apprentices.

When split into age groups the results are just as impressive with 80.5% of 16-18 year olds, 79% of 19-23 year olds and 76.9% of 24+ year olds achieving their apprenticeship qualification.

Kath Boullen, chief executive of St Helens Chamber, said: “We’d like to congratulate all our apprentices for their hard work in achieving their apprenticeships and our training team for their continual efforts to offer the highest quality apprenticeship training in St Helens and across the region.

“These amazing statistics demonstrate how our training and support is helping local people to achieve their goals and progress in their careers, whether this is young people taking the first step on their career ladder, or long serving employees completing training to take the next step up.

“We look forward to continuing to help our apprentices to achieve their goals and supporting local businesses to train their staff and recruit talented young apprentices.”

St Helens Chamber delivers apprenticeships to over 600 people per year in a wide range of areas, from business administration and marketing through to manufacturing, childcare and hairdressing. They are rated good overall by Ofsted and outstanding for personal development, behaviour and welfare.

Additionally, on the Government’s tool where levy-paying employers review their training providers, 100% of responses rated St Helens Chamber ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.