Platform Housing Group, the largest social landlord and employer in the Midlands, is rewarding its apprentices by raising their wages to be in line with the Real Living Wage rate of £10.90 an hour, for both level 2 and 3, as of April 2023. This means that an apprentice working at Platform will earn a minimum of £19,906 a year.
Linda Gittings, Apprenticeship and Qualifications Manager at Platform Housing Group, stated that “Since 2020 we’ve gone from 19 apprentices, to 66 across the business. 50 new colleagues starting their journey into the workplace and 16 existing colleagues upskilling through apprenticeship studies.”
Linda added: “With the cost of living rises and pressures on individuals and families it was important for us to fully reward our apprentices for their hard work and that’s why we’ve raised our minimum wage to £10.90 an hour.”
Platform believes that apprenticeships are invaluable not just for the individual but for the organisation too, with its commitment underpinned by its Apprenticeship Strategy. The organisation is passionate about helping apprentices develop the skills, behaviours, experience and confidence that they will need so support them in their work, and ultimately serve customers better. Providing quality apprenticeship opportunities and a real living wage goes hand in hand with its commitment to offering permanent jobs to those who finish their studies with them too.
Linda went on to say that “Our apprenticeship offering is underpinned by our Apprenticeship Strategy that shows our real commitment to developing not only our own organisation but the housing sector as a whole. And, for the first time our apprentices will earn enough to be eligible to join our pension scheme too if they so wish — you’re never too young to start planning for the future.”
Header image shows Thomas Mills, one of the carpentry apprentices at Platform Housing Group.
