It’s said that up to 2,000 nursing apprentices are going to be trained in England, every year for the next four years. A lot of this comes down to a surge in government funding. There is going to be a funding package which is going to be worth up to £172m and it is going to give nurse apprentices the chance to contribute to the workforce much more. Under the new scheme, nurses are going to be encouraged to take on new training and employers are going to try and cover the wider costs involved as well. Backfill staff are required and of course, apprentices need an education. The lack of support with these costs has been cited as being a huge barrier and it is going to stop the widescale rollout in general.

If you work in nursing jobs or even in a nursing recruitment agency, then you will understand how important this is to the growth of the industry overall. Unions and various other health commentators have warned that the announcement does in fact fall short of the amount of work that is required to address the crisis that is happening right now. The cash is part of the funding that is being given out to apprentices for Jobs 2020. It’s aimed at trying to tackle the unemployment rate that is happening right now and it’s also going to stop the vicious cycle of unemployment in the future. Of course, more still needs to be done and this may well not be enough to even touch what is happening in the economy right now but it’s safe to say that it is a step in the right direction. Only time will tell what the future holds but right now it looks like more needs to be done.