Apprenticeships play a critical role in unlocking potential, building confidence, and developing work ready individuals, ultimately strengthening the workforce in Wales with the essential skills employers value most.

This is particularly important as Wales continues to face ongoing labour market challenges. The Employer Skills Survey 2024 (Wales report) highlights that employers continue to experience greater skills related recruitment difficulties than in the mid 2010s. This reinforces the importance of high quality apprenticeship delivery in equipping individuals with both technical capability and essential behaviours such as communication, resilience, and adaptability.

Giwa Muftau’s journey illustrates the tangible impact of apprenticeship delivery. As a Support Worker at Mencap and a Level 2 Health and Social Care learner with Itec Skills and Employment, Giwa undertook his apprenticeship to strengthen his professional capability, with the aim of

“acquiring the knowledge, skills, and qualifications required to provide high quality care.”

Throughout his programme, Giwa developed key sector specific and transferable competencies, including person centred care, safeguarding, health and safety, and working within rights based frameworks. Importantly, his learning also reinforced core values around equality, diversity, and inclusion, which are central to both the health and social care sector and wider workforce expectations.

Giwa’s experience also highlights the importance of structured support in driving successful outcomes. He credits the consistent guidance from his assessor as instrumental to his development, noting that timely feedback, encouragement, and tailored support enhanced both his engagement and progression.

The results extend beyond achieving a qualification. Giwa experienced clear growth in confidence, organisation, and professional practice, all of which are key indicators of work readiness. As his assessor observed, his development was evident both in the workplace and personally, reflecting the wider impact apprenticeships can have on performance and progression.

Now more confident and capable, Giwa is applying his learning in practice and is motivated to continue developing within the sector. His commitment to further progression demonstrates how apprenticeships support not only entry into employment but also long term career development.

For employers, the benefits are clear. Apprenticeships help to:

• Build a more capable and confident workforce
• Improve staff retention and engagement
• Address skills gaps through targeted, practical training
• Develop both technical skills and essential workplace behaviours
• Support high quality service delivery through better trained staff
• Create clear progression pathways and future talent pipeline

By developing his skills and unlocking his potential, Giwa’s apprenticeship has not only benefitted him as an individual but has also contributed to strengthening the workforce in Wales.