Established in 2013, The 5% Club is a movement of more than 700 employers providing ‘earn and learn’ opportunities to develop the skills and talents people need to become more employable and create ‘meaningful’ careers.
Companies joining the club commit to raising the number of apprentices, sponsored students and graduates on formal programmes to 5 per cent of their total workforce within five years. Members are also asked to publicly report their progress annually.
Tops Day Nurseries and Aspire Training wanted to join The 5 % Club to show their dedication to training employees and supporting career progression throughout the company. They already exceed the club’s promise to dedicated 5 per cent of employees’ numbers to earn and learn positions.
Tops Day Nurseries have approximately 700 employees and recruit around 100 apprentices per year, through Aspire Training Team, making up 15 per cent of their workforce.
Amy Alderson, director of early years audit and training at Tops, said, ‘I am responsible for developing and managing a responsive, outstanding quality programme of training that addresses the training needs of the business. I make it my top priority to advocate for staff training and development. Joining the 5% club demonstrates our commitment as a business to supporting and promoting career progression. We do this through providing high-quality, impactful training to our workforce and by providing a range of traineeship programmes in or to ensure that careers and succession are supported effectively’.
Gill Cronin, director of operations of The 5% Club, said, ‘We’re delighted to welcome Tops Day Nurseries and Aspire Training Team into membership. The 5% Club provides a fantastic network of HR professionals, sharing and learning from each other. All our members share an ethos of creating a skilled workforce through “earn and learn” development programmes, helping people develop meaningful career paths.’
