We are delighted to announce that our apprenticeship scheme is about to receive a significant investment.

Our partners at the Stoke-on-Trent City Council have agreed to fund seven apprenticeship placements for police staff in three distinct business areas: business analytics, learning and development and IT.

The apprentices, who will embark on their programmes in the coming months, are part of a number of wider apprenticeship placements that we will be supporting in 2024.

Since governmental reforms to the apprenticeship system in 2017, organisations, such as ours, with a payroll exceeding £3 million have been required to pay a tax of 0.5 per cent of the monthly payroll into a central government pot, called the apprenticeship levy. This is designed to be invested in apprenticeship programmes for current or future staff.

We have been proudly investing in apprenticeships since 2017 and have consistently exceeded the government's target of 2.1 per cent of the workforce undertaking an apprenticeship each year since 2018.

To date, we have received a total of £432,000 from three external organisations, from their levy pots via a process called ‘transfer of levy’, which has allowed us to fund 18 police officer apprenticeships.

John Bloomer, Assistant Chief Officer for Resources at Staffordshire Police, said: "We continue to be committed to developing our workforce with the inclusion of apprenticeships as part of our recruitment and retention process.

"Apprenticeships are a great way for colleagues to develop and achieve new skills and qualifications whilst learning and working on the job.

"I am pleased to see so many recently qualified apprentices complete their apprenticeships and I wish our current apprentices the very best of luck as they embark on their programmes.”