Building future-ready skills in justice and public services
National Apprenticeship Week (10-16 February) celebrates how apprenticeships can help individuals develop rewarding careers and highlights how crucial they are for developing a workforce with future-ready skills.
As the UK’s Sector Skills Council for Justice, we’ve been involved in developing a number of apprenticeship standards that are in use across justice, local authorities, and fire and rescue sectors.
For public sector organisations, who have struggled with recruitment and retention in recent years, apprenticeships are a vital way to provide a clear route into the workforce. For many public services, the practical approach to learning is the best way to onboard recruits, offering them hands-on training and real-world experiences which are difficult to recreate in a more academic learning environment.
Apprentice of the Year winners at the Inspire Justice Awards are living proof of the value apprentices can bring to policing, fire and rescue, prisons and other public services.
In 2024, call handler Jack Bloomfield from Southampton Central Police Station was nominated for this award for his creation of a new tool to help audit contact into the force.
Jack used his skills and knowledge to create the tool ‘Journey of a Call’ alongside the Quality Assurance and Development team, introducing a new way for the force to track contacts and highlight any areas within the process that need reviewing. This directly improves the support offered to victims.
Learning and Professional Development Standards Officer, Katherine Parsons, said, “Jack clearly went above and beyond his role, often in his own time, to produce the tool to help the department fully audit the journey of the call. His hard work and dedication in his first year of his career within Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary highlighted him as a candidate for Apprentice of the Year.
“He showed that he takes a proactive approach to collaborating with his colleagues. This also highlights the importance of developing our people and allowing us as an organisation to showcase Jack’s achievements, recognising all of his hard work.”
As Jack’s experience has shown, having apprentices within an organisation can offer increased opportunities for fresh ideas as apprentices often come to the role with a varied skillset and experience from different fields.
Skills for Justice have years of experience in developing and supporting apprenticeships. Find out more about how we can support your organisation with its apprenticeships.
Discover the Inspire Justice Awards
The Inspire Justice Awards is the UK’s only awards programme dedicated to recognising the achievements of the entire justice sector, including apprentices from across different areas of justice.