National careers body to oversee flagship ASK apprenticeship programme contract for Government
03 Sep 2024
The Department for Education (DfE) has transferred the contract management of the Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge (ASK) programme to The Careers & Enterprise Company, the national body for careers education.
Launched in 2015, The ASK programme, funded by the Department for Education, offers free support for schools and colleges in England to increase awareness about apprenticeships, and T levels among students, teachers, parents and carers.
ASK is managed and delivered regionally by four key partners and supported centrally by Amazing Apprenticeships;
- CXK – South of England
- EDT – London
- Workpays – Midlands
- BL Training – North
Over the last year, the ASK programme has successfully engaged over 2,400 schools and colleges and had interactions with more than 625,000 students, 15,000 teachers and 45,000 parents and carers.
Since starting nine years ago, the programme has had a marked impact, with more than 4 million student interactions taking place to support students in learning more about apprenticeships and technical education.
The ASK Programme contributes towards schools meeting the Provider Access Legislation (PAL), which took effect in 2023 and requires that all students in years 8 – 13 have meaningful encounters with providers of technical education and apprenticeships.
All four regional organisations will now be working more closely with The Careers and Enterprise Company to build on the success of ASK through promoting and developing collaborative partnerships and targeted activity within regional and local skills priorities.
CEC’s national network of 44 Careers Hubs will play a key supporting role in developing the well-established partnerships already in place with schools, colleges, employers and Mayoral and Local Authorities.
Oli de Botton, CEO of The Careers & Enterprise Company said: “We know how important it is to ensure young people receive meaningful, relevant and inspiring information about apprenticeships and other technical pathways. These routes can be life changing – and it is our job to help young people access them.
“We are really looking forward to working with and continuing to build on the fantastic work of the established regional ASK Delivery Partners to ensure schools and colleges continue to access a rich variety of high-quality activities and resources for their school and college communities.”
Anna Morrison, CEO of Amazing Apprenticeships said: “We are proud to have been a partner of the ASK programme since its inception nine years ago. We firmly believe that this latest arrangement will enable us to work even more closely with the CEC, maximising our collective efforts to ensure that even more young people and their families can access high quality information about apprenticeships and technical education. We are genuinely excited for the academic year ahead and the collaborative opportunities that it will bring.”
Pauline Smith, CEO of CXK said: “The success of ASK has been overwhelming across the South of England and we are very excited to continue to build and strengthen transformational apprenticeship and technical opportunities for young people across our region.”
Guy Saxton, Senior Contracts Manager, BL Training said: “The ASK Programme has been an unprecedented success across the North Region over the last 9 years. The ASK North network is incredibly excited to make this positive step to further develop the programme to the benefit of the whole educational sector.”
Ross Anderson, UK Managing Director at EDT said: “We are delighted to have contributed to the success of the ASK programme to date and look forward to working with the CEC, their network of Careers Hubs and other ASK partners to ensure young people continue receiving high quality information and guidance on technical and vocational pathways. At EDT, we are pleased to see a continuing drive for collaboration across the careers sector as a joined-up approach supports the attainment of better outcomes for young people.”
Anne Wright, MD of Workpays said: “At Workpays, we’re proud of the success the ASK programme has brought to the Midlands, helping young people gain the knowledge and confidence they need to explore apprenticeships. This new partnership is an exciting step forward, allowing us to further our impact and help even more young people understand all the options available to them, make fully informed choices about their futures, and enable them to pursue their dream career and start in life.”