s1jobs, Scotland’s No 1 recruitment platform, is to underline its commitment to job seekers and employers by featuring high volumes of apprentice vacancies for the first time.
s1jobs has secured a partnership agreement with QA Apprenticeships, the UK’s leading learning business, which will result in around 150 posts being advertised over the summer months.
The partnership, announced during Scottish Apprentice Week, will increase the chances of the right candidate being matched with an apprenticeship role as they will be advertised to one of the largest job-seeking audiences in Scotland.
QA Apprenticeships, Scotland’s leading IT apprenticeships business, is the lead provider tasked with delivering the Scottish Government’s pledge to add 2000 IT apprenticeships to the country’s workforce by 2016.
The partnership is a key step towards that goal as s1jobs attracts more than 600,000 users every month and is used by more than 2,000 companies, including Scotland’s top 5 Plcs.
Until now apprenticeship roles have not featured heavily on the site, but the partnership is expected to see around 150 Scottish based apprenticeships in IT, software development and business support advertised between June-September.
Billy Girvan, Partnership Manager at s1jobs, said: “The value and benefits of apprenticeship schemes are obvious and these types of roles are absolutely essential to the economic growth of the country and perhaps more importantly in increasing employment.
“We’re absolutely delighted to partner with QA to advertise their apprenticeships roles and look forward to helping job-seekers on their way to rewarding careers that will hopefully last a lifetime.”
The organisations are hoping this will be the start of a very long strategic partnership that will benefit both firms and thousands of young job seekers, with up to 600 apprenticeship vacancies being advertised a year.
QA Apprenticeships, three-time winners of Apprenticeship Programme of the Year, estimate that 94% of their apprentices secure permanent employment after completing their training role – a staggering 20% higher than the national average.
Siobhan Cronin, Head of Engagement at QA Apprenticeships, said: “Our apprentices enjoy fantastic IT careers with Scotland’s best employers, and award-winning QA training to take back to their workplace.
“As the lead provider for delivering the Scottish Government’s pledge to grow the number of IT apprenticeships across the country, it’s very exciting to announce this partnership with s1jobs.com that will give more opportunity to Scotland’s young people.
“We’re looking forward to seeing a lot of eager candidates come through from the s1 site.”
Run by Skills Development Scotland (SDS), The Scottish Apprenticeship Week, running from 19-23 May, features more than 100 events highlighting the importance of the schemes to young job seekers, the economy and industry in Scotland.
Many firms hosted week-long schedules of activity including recruitment events, business-to-business seminars and back-to-the-floor days for senior management helping to raise the profile of the schemes and reach more potential candidates.