APPRENTICESHIP+

Deadline: 30 May 2025

The Apprenticeship+ project is now open for applications

The project, a partnership between Heritage Crafts and the Hugo Burge Foundation, will supplement two apprenticeships – one in England and one in Scotland – each with a £12,000 financial contribution to the apprentices’ salary and a £6,000 grant to help compensate the employer for the reduction in their earnings during the training period.

The learning from the two pilot apprenticeships, along with data gathered from the applicants, will inform an advocacy campaign for better support for apprenticeships, directed at current and future policymakers.

If you are an employer thinking of taking on an apprentice in one of these craft disciplines (list of eligible apprenticeships in England / list of eligible apprenticeships in Scotland), and would like to apply for this financial support, please fill out the form linked below by Friday 30 May 2025.

If you have any questions about eligibility or need assistance with the application process, please get in touch with Zarka Iqbal at zarka@heritagecrafts.org.uk in advance of applying.

If you prefer, a Word version of the application form is available here.

Alternatively, if you feel that this project provides insufficient support to enable you to take on an apprentice and/or no suitable standard/framework is available for your craft, we would still like to hear from you, and would invite you to fill in this alternative survey.

Background

Currently, the only government support available for apprenticeships is for the off-the-job element of the training, usually in the form of a day-release or block-release to a local college or specialist institution.

The other costs tend to be prohibitive for sole traders and micro-businesses, resulting in many apprenticeship standards experiencing a low uptake and many crafts on the brink of extinction, as evidenced in Heritage Crafts’ ground-breaking research The Red List of Endangered Crafts.

Most crafts featured on the list are able to operate commercially-viable businesses and do not need ongoing subsidy. However, when it comes to passing the skills on, they do require external financial help in order to keep the business afloat and prevent an untimely end to the lineage of skill and knowledge passed down through the generations.

The learning from the two pilot apprenticeships, along with data gathered from the applicants, will inform an advocacy campaign directed at current and future policymakers. With government plans to reform the existing apprenticeship levy into a more flexible ‘growth and skills’ levy, this is a well-timed contribution to discussions around more effective use of such funding.

The Hugo Burge Foundation

Hugo Burge, who died in 2023 aged 51, was a British entrepreneur, philanthropist and art-lover who spent the last ten years of his life investing in establishing and fostering a creative hub around the Marchmont Estate in Berwickshire. The Foundation established in his name constitutes a major new charity dedicated to supporting the arts, crafts and creative industries across the United Kingdom.

In 2018, Heritage Crafts worked with Hugo to recruit two apprentices, Richard Platt and Sam Cooper, to learn the skills of rush-seated chair making from last-in-the-line Lawrence Neal, and to move the chair making operation up to Marchmont, where it could establish a commercially-viable base. At the end of 2024, Richard and Sam took on Isaac, the first apprentice of their own.

www.hugoburgefoundation.org