One of the last students to complete the course at the Yorkshire college was Sam Lumb of Applelec. A call to the college confirmed the closure which was due to a lack of support from the sign industry itself with dwindling numbers. However Walsall, Sussex and Sheffield also run courses which they guestimate attract around 100 apprenticeships.
Cogent has a new apprenticeship programme and funding opportunity for sign-making employers under our Science Industrial Partnership”
The Government agency charged with finding apprenticeships for the sign industry is Cogent. When asked last week they said they said they didn’t know. Now they have responded. Their Apprenticeship Manager Ian Lockhart told Signlink: “You made a request for the number of apprentices undertaking a sign-making framework. There are 100 Government funded apprentice starts in England per year. Some employers may be employing apprentices that are not Government funded so we at Cogent would not know about these.
“Cogent has a new apprenticeship programme and funding opportunity for sign-making employers under our Science Industrial Partnership.”
Cogent work with Hull and Walsall colleges meaning that must be approximately 200 apprentices in the country at any one time training to be sign-makers, a figure lower than we had previously estimated. Considering there are more roughly 40,000 plus workers in the industry the numbers being formerly trained are very low.
If you have an interesting story or a view on this news, then please e-mail news@signlink.co.uk
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