Recommendation 15

The BBC was also behind on its targets for apprentice recruitment, namely to double the number of in-house apprentices by the end of 2025, supporting 1,000 in any given year, with 80% of its apprentices outside London. By March 2023, the BBC had recruited 617 in-house apprentices, against a target of 713, with 60% outside London against a target of 80%. As part of Across the UK, the BBC was trialling a new apprenticeship model in the West Midlands with its Apprentice Hub. Through the Apprentice Hub, apprentices were placed with local companies, which shared the costs with the BBC. By March 2023, the BBC had placed 27 apprentices through the Apprentice Hub, against a target of 50. We asked the BBC what barriers it had encountered with the Apprentice Hub, and how it was addressing these. The BBC explained that the hub was based on a demand-led model, and fewer companies than it had expected had been able to take on apprentices. While the BBC undertook to cover the recruitment and management costs of the scheme, and provide one day of paid employment every week, it was reliant on partner companies to provide, and fund, the remaining four days a week. It explained that economic conditions, including rising costs and headcount pressures, “were challenging for the small creative businesses that we wanted to work with” and that with hindsight that additional costs for these businesses to take on early-career apprentices “was probably too much”. The BBC told us that it was evaluating the scheme and reviewing how to improve its apprenticeship offer and whether it would continue with the current model.26