We are very happy to announce the newest member of The St Martin’s Group – Costa Coffee

To celebrate our newest arrival, we sat down with Ruth South, Costa’s Global Early Careers & Apprenticeships Lead, to discuss their apprenticeship programme. They explained to us the value of their apprenticeship programme, where they want to take the programme going forward, and why they joined The St Martin’s Group.

Why have you decided to become the latest member of The St Martin’s Group?

As we continue to accelerate our investment in apprenticeships, our connection with employers, training providers, awarding organisations and government is key to continue to drive the apprenticeship agenda forward. St Martin’s Group provides us with the perfect platform to do this and to collaborate with other organisations who are equally as passionate about making a difference to people’s life’s, the economy and businesses through apprenticeships.

What are Costa’s plans for further investment in the apprenticeship area?

We believe in the huge potential that apprenticeships have in helping build our team members’ careers at Costa Coffee whilst supporting the communities they live in and serve. Our own community of apprentices are helping us to inspire the world to love great coffee and we are providing opportunities for them to develop long term careers with us.

After more than tripling our apprenticeship programmes available to team members over the past 12 months we are planning to continue to expand the range of apprenticeships available into new areas, building key capability to ensure we have the skills we need for the future and supporting our team members with their ambitions.

How can businesses and Government further strengthen the apprenticeship system in England?

Collaboration is key to strengthening the system as well as ensuring that feedback is collated and shared constructively. Further exploration of flexibility opportunities with the Apprenticeship Levy is a key area, to unlock the funds available that are going unspent for a broader purpose across a range of skills gaps. In addition, the ability to enable all organisations to access the specialist skills required to manage Apprenticeship programmes well. Providing support and even the ability to fund roles of this nature through the levy would also make a huge difference to engaging further employers in the apprenticeship area and creating further rigour and consistency within the system.