Across the country, colleges and training providers are competing to deliver apprenticeships. In Greater Manchester, however, providers have done something quite different: we have come together to create a joint apprenticeship partnership.

The marketplace for colleges and training providers has, in the last three years, seen huge change and presented many challenges. What we now know is that this period of reform is far from over. However, as we move forward, partnership working and collaboration can be one of our most effective tools in shaping our response.

In Greater Manchester, the government’s commitment to achieving 3 million apprenticeship starts nationally by 2020 struck a strong resonance for our learning communities and regional economy - it led us to think about what we could do differently in order to contribute to the target.

With the challenge presented - and alongside the wider commitment from across the region to increase apprenticeship participation - the Greater Manchester Apprenticeship Company (GMAC) was formed in 2016.

The first of its kind, GMAC is a partnership between nine Greater Manchester colleges and training provider The Skills Company, designed to get existing learners across the partnership “apprenticeship ready” and, in turn, accelerate the uptake of apprenticeships in the region.

From day one, this project was about working together

However, our intentions have already moved beyond that of merely generating starts. Now we are focusing as much on curriculum planning, ensuring our skills offer matches the demand of the local economy and pushing forward on continual quality improvement.

From day one, this project was about working together. That is not to say the partners don’t compete, because we do exist in a competitive market, but the project provides a structure within which to find common ground and focus our collaboration accordingly.

Together we have a collective employer base of more than 20,000 businesses and a base of 120,000 learners annually - a huge reach that can of course lead to real impact.

By working collaboratively, we can address the specific skill-need priorities of Greater Manchester. This in turn meets our local employers’ needs and provides new opportunities for our residents.

On a practical level, what GMAC boils down to is the members coming together and finding new ways to drive improvement, develop expertise and ensure that our offer provides real benefits to learners and employers in the region. Encouragingly, the ways in which we collaborate have multiplied as time has gone on.

A real impact

What started as meetings every six weeks between senior representatives from across the partnership has evolved, so that now we have specialist cluster groups forming in areas such as careers advice and guidance, delivery of apprenticeship standards and IT.

In the case of careers advice, our work is having a real impact on links with partner schools, as well as information for school leavers on apprenticeship routes - a topic that has proved a challenge in the past.

Further work has seen the creation of a sub-group which is focused on the development of apprenticeship standards, the creation of a unique online careers portal designed to support and inspire learners as they look to progress onto an apprenticeship, staff development and the inevitable sharing of experience and best practice.

Less than a year in, we’ve trained more than 200 staff and almost 7,000 students have experienced the benefits of our online careers portal, called This Is Me.

Tutors are saying that this year, for the first time, there are almost equal numbers of people asking them about apprenticeships as there are about university, which for us is a great indicator of our success.

Of course, it is still early days, but already we can see that we are having more informed conversations with learners, parents and employers about the apprenticeship route - and that is something from which all of the partners benefit.

Anna Dawe is principal of Wigan and Leigh College