Employer's Guide

Want to grow your business but worried about the cost implications?
You may want to consider taking on an apprentice?

Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes designed around the needs of the employer. Apprenticeships are the proven way to train your work force and can make your organisation more effective, productive and competitive by addressing your organisation’s skills gaps directly. An apprentice can be a very cost effective solution to helping your business grow.

Effective from October 1st 2011:

The national minimum wage (NMW) is a legal right to a minimum hourly rate of pay covering almost all workers in the UK.

This guide gives you an overview of the NMW - it provides a summary of the key elements and explains your main responsibilities as an employer.

From 1 October 2011 the following rates apply:

• £6.08 per hour for workers aged 21 years old and over
• £4.98 per hour for workers aged 18 to 20 years old
• £3.68 per hour for workers above school leaving age but under 18 years old
• £2.60 for apprentices under the age of 19 years old or aged 19 years old or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship

The age threshold for the main rate (the rate for workers aged 21 years old and over) was reduced from 22 to 21 on 1 October 2011.

Rocket Training Limited deliver quality Apprenticeship frameworks in Business Administration, Customer Service, Retail and Motor Vehicle Engineering with courses taking between 9 – 18 months to complete, depending on the course.

Learner and employer support is integral in each of the delivery options we offer, in particular for apprentices with specific requirements or those re-entering learning and development. We have excellent working relationships with around 120 employers across Merseyside and 130 apprentices working towards Level 2 or Level 3 qualifications. During March 2010 Ofsted graded Rocket Training Limited as ‘Good’.

Click on our course fact sheets for more information on our fantastic courses.

	Home Retail Group has worked with Rocket Training for five years. "We would really recommend Rocket Training to other businesses as they are very friendly, committed to what they do and mostly they have a very high pass rate.We use Rocket Training for our Customer Service Apprentices and they provide a great service." - Annette Bott, Co-ordinator	Vita Flo International LTD have worked with Rocket Training for the last three years. "Rocket Training has a good working relationship with Vita Flo and I find the staff are friendly and supportive. The staff are all very professional, well trained and committed to giving us a great service. I would definitely recommend Rocket Training to other businesses." - Pam Beggs, Commercial Manager
	"Sarbkar would recommend Rocket Training to other companies as they have always supplied high quality apprentices for our company." - Tony Standish, Managing Director of Sarbkar Northwest