Once upon a time, apprenticeships were seen as something for school-leaver deemed no academically bright enough for university. They were for those young people who were good with their hands and looking to learn a trade.
Perhaps a low point for apprenticeships was the 1980s. Poor take-up saw the government of the time introduce the much-maligned Youth Training Scheme but it attracted both political and social criticism from an early point, with critics claiming that the scheme enabled employers to exploit school-leavers for cheap labour. Furthermore, they believed that the YTS schemes provided little substance in the way of genuine education.
In its defence, the government said it was responsible for preventing many young people joining the dole queue after leaving school. In the past few years, youth unemployment has raised its ugly head once again. This time the government solution has been apprenticeships but these “earn while you learn” schemes are very different to those of 30 years ago – and a far cry from YTS. Modern-day apprenticeships cover a range of sectors, helping produce young skilled workers that companies want to employ.
One such company that is helping to nurture this new generation is Derby training provider Aspire, Achieve, Advance, also known as 3AAA. The business is the brainchild of co-directors Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson.
Before deciding to go into business together towards the end of 2007, Peter and Di had achieved success in their respective fields. Peter enjoyed success at KPMG, where he rapidly rose to the position of partner for its education practice in the UK before leaving to become the managing director of Assa Training and Learning, a training business in the North East. He would go on to lead a buy-out of the business and turn it into a multi-million-pound concern, which he would eventually sell.
As for Di, her whole career has been devoted to the leaning and skills sector, working across both public and private organisations, including posts as principal of West Nottinghamshire College and deputy principal of Derby College. She says: “The families of myself and Peter had known each other for years. Our children grew up together: It was over a cup of coffee that we came up with the idea for Aspire, Achieve, Advance. Peter’s background was in finance and training and mine was in the learning and skills sector, so we decided to pool our respective talents. We saw what we believed was a genuine gap in the market – and that was to create a quality training provider.”
And so, in January, 2008, Aspire Achieve Advance, or 3AAA was born. Initially based at Peter’s Derbyshire home, the business started out providing training to the logistics sector, working with clients including TNT, NFT Distribution and UPS.
In 2010, Peter and Di sensed a definite shift in the training and skills market. The government was putting apprenticeships back on the agenda. Peter himself knows first-hand the worth of apprenticeships. He left school at 16 to take one, as did his own two children.
He says: “I think for people of a certain generation there was still a stigma attached to apprenticeships. They probably thought of the YTS schemes of old. For some, apprenticeships are associated with learning a trade, such as carpentry or plumbing, and I guess this has probably led to a lot of dinner table snobbery towards them. Some parents believe that the route for their child should be school, college and then university. If your kid didn’t go down that route then they’d be considered a failure but the fact is, modern-day apprenticeships are completely different from the days of YTS.
“They are a credible alternative to university. They get young people into practical learning from a very early stage. They are earning while they learn and are not saddled with a big pile of debt at the end. Most important of all, they lead to a job – something you are not guaranteed when you finish uni.” Peter says: “There is an increasing demand from businesses for young people with the right skills – skills like IT, social media and accountancy. We have some extremely talented apprentices right here in Derby and businesses should utilise that talent. There are people from my generation who are not particularly good at understanding the power of things like social media.
What these young apprentices can do is come in and actually teach people like me how it’s done!” Andy (Managing Director) says: “Social media is becoming very important and we are starting to run training course based solely on that subject. We even have a business based in our Derby offices, run by three of our apprentices called Social Media Butler, which offers to handle the social media for companies who do not have the resources or time to do it themselves.”
Of course, to help ensure it is marriage made in heaven, 3AAA puts a lot of work into matching businesses with apprentices. Di says: “It’s rather like a dating agency. We try to match the right candidate with the right company and bring them together but before that happens we prepare the candidate as much as we can so the whole process runs smoothly.”
The successful training formula employed by 3AAA has led to rapid growth of the firm, not just in Derby but further afield. The city is its base and home to the 3AAA Derby Academy, which trains IT and social media apprentices aged between 16 and 18, but the firm also has 14 IT academies dotted across the country and four accountancy academies. In total, it has about 200 staff, 23 of which are in Derby. This year, it is planning to open a further 10 academies. On average, each academy trains around 80 to 100 apprentices, which means in total, 3AAA is helping to create opportunities for between 1,400 to 1,600 apprentices a year. Peter says: “I get a great deal of satisfaction watching these young people grow in confidence. I always tell them that one day I want to be lying on a beach somewhere hot, reading their bestselling autobiography about how they became the new Sir Richard Branson. If within that book they mention 3AAA as helping them on the road to success then I will retire!”
