Aldi is to donate £1 million to small and medium-sized businesses this year, to help fund local apprenticeship schemes across the UK.
The discount grocer, which also recently announced that it is looking to recruit more than 500 apprentices this year, has so far, donated over £1.7 million of levy funding.
All donated funds will be used to support apprenticeship schemes run by SMEs across the UK, in sectors such as early years education, operations management, hospitality and health and social care.
This includes funding being donated to not-for-profit Management Development Services (MDS), which offers leadership training opportunities in the food supply industry.
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MDS will receive a portion of the latest £1 million investment, alongside training organisation Total People and Aldi’s principal apprenticeship provider, Lifetime.
“Apprenticeships play a crucial part not only in our sector, but in helping people across the UK, at all levels, reach their full potential,” Aldi UK learning and development director Lisa Murphy said.
“Last year, we recruited over 150 of our own apprentices across our Store, Logistics and National Buying teams, and enrolled over 50 existing colleagues onto apprenticeship programmes to help them gain industry-recognised qualifications and develop their skills through practical hands-on experience.”
She added: “We’re really excited to see how our £1 million investment will be used by businesses in the communities we serve to help people gain employment and develop new skills.”
The news comes as just today the CEO of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Helen Dickinson slammed the UK for its “broken” apprenticeship levy, calling for an “urgent fix”.
In an open letter, unions including UK Hospitality, TechUK and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC),called on the the government for “holding back investment” in training.
