Welcome to the first Business & Administration Young Apprenticeship newsletter for 2008.

I would like to start by congratulating the partnerships who were successful in their application to offer the Cohort 5 Business & Administration programme. This year saw an increased number of applications as the programme continues to become more and more popular. There are now a total of 46 Business & Administration partnerships approved for Cohort 5, many of whom have been involved for several Cohorts and are proving to be a great asset to the programme.

I would also like to welcome all new partnerships to the programme, and encourage them to utilise the support network of the CfA for any information or assistance they may need.

In this edition I have placed a strong emphasis on Health and Safety and the responsibilities of partnerships. With the Department for Children, Schools and Families announcement that SSC/Bs need to look at the possibility of merging the Young Apprenticeship Programme with the Diploma, James Holyfield, from the newly formed UKCES has kindly provided an update of where the future of YA may be heading.

In May, CfA Senior Development Officer Uta Sempf hosted a CEDEFOP study visit in London.  CEDEFOP (The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Education) is a European agency used to promote the development of vocational education and training throughout Europe. The agency invites delegates from a variety of different countries to come together to learn about Vocational Training Programmes run in other European countries. The CfA was awarded the privilege of hosting nine delegates from a variety of professions in the educational setting who were interested in learning about the Young Apprenticeship programme. Uta has kindly put together an article outlining the visit.

The last six months has seen me meet with a variety of partnerships at steering groups and regional meetings. I am hoping to schedule further meetings across the nation in the coming year and look forward to meeting you all.

From now on, the YA newsletter will be a twice yearly publication. Rather than a regular, smaller issue, the newsletter will now consist of more in-depth and extensive articles. They will cover a range of current issues and updates from a range of YA partnerships and relevant associations.

Thank you to all the partnerships who contributed to this newsletter. It is great to see that there is still a lot of interest in the programme.

Click here to download the newsletter - pdf 943kb

Sara Vanderheld, YA Coordinator