The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is joining forces with business apprenticeship issuing authority Skills CFA to develop the first Advanced and Higher Level Apprenticeship in recruitment.

As part of the Skills CFA’s Pan Sector Partnership that joins leading professional bodies in business skills including Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Institute of Leadership and Management and the Trade Unions Congress and four other cross-industry bodies – the REC will work to develop standards, qualifications and training programmes across the UK for a whole range of business skills.

Skills CFA has one of the largest remits of any standards-setting body or Sector Skills Council by developing business standards and apprenticeships which represent 10 million employees in the UK.

On joining the partnership this month the REC’s first joint initiative with Skills CFA is a bid to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), submitted today, to create the first Advanced and Higher Level Apprenticeship in recruitment for England and Wales.

REC CEO Kevin Green says:

“It’s both exciting and a huge privilege to partner with Skills CFA to spearhead the development of the first ever apprenticeship in recruitment. We’ve had very enthusiastic support from some of the UK’s largest recruiters for this project, and we will work with all interested parties to make this a significant development for the recruitment industry over the next year.

“Recruitment is a people-centric industry and our standards of service and professionalism can be greatly enhanced by a systematic approach to attracting and developing the people who chose to become recruiters.”

Skills CFA Chief Executive, Jenny Hewell, says:

“We are delighted to have REC as the newest member in our partnership, to help us harness the best recruitment skill development opportunities for the UK.  Each year the industry is estimated to be responsible for placing up to one and a half million individuals in jobs.

“We value our partnership with the REC and know it will be critical to the work we plan to do on standards, qualifications, apprenticeships and the business skills agenda.  With nine other partner organisations in the same partnership we are committed to providing the best opportunities for developing and testing world class business skills for organisations that have gaps in their skill base, hard to fill posts or sturdy competition in their sector.”