QA joins The 5% Club and supports ‘earn and learn’

QA "earn and learn" roles already more than double the target

QA has joined The 5% Club to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to up-skilling the UK’s next generation of talent. The 5% Club, a growing charity movement of employer-members endorsed by the Confederation of British Industry, now counts over 350 members across a wide range of sectors since its inception in 2013. Members, including prominent employers such as the Ministry of Defence, PwC, GlaxoSmithKline and Hilton, set a target to achieve 5% of their workforce in “earn and learn” roles (including apprentices, sponsored students and graduates on formal training schemes) within five years of joining.

Already a firm supporter of Earn and Learn roles, QA’s workforce has over 10% of staff in such roles. At more than double the initial target, QA has taken the decision to further stretch ourselves in the next 5 years and see this percentage grow further.

“As a company focused on careers training and apprenticeships ourselves, it’s a big priority for us to live our own values by hiring apprentices and investing in upskilling our workforce – which we believe is key to bridging the UK’s skills gap,” says QA CEO William Macpherson. “We love having bright young people on board to start their careers at QA – they bring fresh ideas, new perspectives, the most up-to-date training and a real dedication to sharpening their skills.

“QA has joined at more than double the 5% commitment at 10.9% and have set our sights on an even higher target in earn and learn roles within five years.”

Created to help conquer high youth unemployment and a lack of workplace skills, The 5% Club is based on the idea that employers – as job creators – are best placed to know the skills that will drive prosperity in the UK and gives them an opportunity to play a defined role on the demand side.

Lady Cobham CBE, Director General of The 5% Club said, “We’re delighted to welcome QA into membership and with such an impressive percentage of staff in earn and learn. The 5% Club provides a fantastic network of HR professionals, sharing and learning from each other.  All our members share an ethos of creating a skilled workforce through ‘earn and learn’ development programmes, helping people develop meaningful career paths.”

About QA

• QA is the UK's leading IT and business skills providers, specialising in training, consultancy, apprenticeships and post graduate degrees on a range of technical and leadership subjects.
• With 22 UK-wide training centres – from state-of-the-art Apprenticeships and Consulting Academies, to University campuses and flexible online learning provision, QA offers an unparalleled portfolio of learning solutions to both private and public sector organisations.

For more information visit www.qa.com.