Secondary 14-19 Vocational - Young Apprentices - The Mechanics

In this programme, we look at how a partnership of schools, the local education authority and further education colleges is offering an innovative new scheme to 14-year-olds in south Yorkshire.

Existing strong links in the Rotherham area meant this partnership was selected to run 30 young apprenticeships when the pilot was launched in 2004.

The scheme is aimed at academically bright 14 and 15-year-olds and involves 50 days of work experience. We examine the key features:

• How the level two qualifications can be delivered
• The partnerships involved
• The selection of the students
• Key staff from all the institutions involved talk about their experience and offer advice about running such a scheme

This programme will be of particular interest to:

• Schools who have recently been successful in bidding for places on the scheme
• Schools who hope to take part in the scheme in the future
• Those who are interested in vocational education in general