Solving skills: Powering growth through physics-related apprenticeships

Our latest report confirms that now is the time to set a course for economic growth. Physics-related apprenticeships can be a solution – if we unleash their potential.

In 2023, the Institute of Physics (IOP), working with Shift Learning, commissioned a report looking at physics-related apprenticeships in the UK and Ireland. The report sets out the challenges and opportunities for physics-related apprenticeships and is built on interviews with apprentices, their employers and training providers across the UK and Ireland. We have a full report, and the IOP’s summary Solving Skills: Powering growth through physics-related apprenticeships (12 pages).

Using this report as a launch pad, the IOP convened a series of five Solving Skills Summits and heard from more than 100 physics-powered employers, education providers and government representatives from across the UK and Ireland. Across these conversations, we found exciting examples of organisations working in regional partnerships to leverage the opportunities that apprenticeships present despite the barriers we identified.

Our newest report, Solving Skills One Year On: Partnerships powering apprenticeships (40 pages), published in February 2024, spotlights nine case studies of organisations playing a significant role in increasing local awareness of apprenticeship opportunities, working in partnership with other employers, training providers and local and regional government to meet local skills needs.