Trade unions play an important role developing and delivering Apprenticeship programmes. A tried and tested model is to establish steering groups/advisory committees which include representation from all the key stakeholders. These groups can then oversee, monitor and make recommendations to improve the quality of Apprenticeship provision.

GMB and unionlearn have recently instigated discussions with ASDA Logistics Services, with a view to the 4 distribution centres in the Midlands and East Coast region taking on Apprentices. GMB are the sole recognised trade union at these distribution centres and are uniquely placed to open dialogue with ASDA during the course of their ongoing, regular meetings. GMB have been able to persuade ASDA to implement an Apprenticeship programme by highlighting the business case for doing so. It is expected that the Apprenticeship programme will also bring significant benefits to local young people. There is also scope for looking at route ways into employment for young people not ready for an apprenticeship such as Traineeships or other pre apprenticeship training.

Trade unions emphasise the importance of developing high quality Apprenticeship frameworks. ASDA is looking to create level 3 Apprenticeships with a minimum duration of 2 years.

Where trade unions are involved in developing Apprenticeship standards, they will often seek to establish pilot programmes to test frameworks before they can be rolled out on an up scaled, national programme. For example, in the example given above, each distribution centre will initially have 5 Apprentices in each distribution centre. This enables the stakeholders to evaluate the pilot programme and apply the lessons learned to enhance the national programme before it is rolled out. To ensure the pilot programme is properly monitored and evaluated, unionlearn and GMB will sit on an Apprenticeship advisory group with ASDA to assess the progress being made. The project will engage with the union branches involved and arrange ULR training for members interested in taking up the role and brief members and reps as to the importance of this agenda to both the GMB and ASDA.

Often, discussions around Apprenticeships and other skills programmes, between unions and employers will be formalised by a collective agreement or learning agreement. These agreements would set out the reason/rationale for reaching an agreement, the objectives of the joint skills programmes, the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders and establish procedures for monitoring and assessing progress according to the objectives.