With university applications down by 6%, recent leavers may be looking to apprenticeships to enter the workforce. Today, however, one of the country’s biggest providers of adult training, Pearson in Practice, has been shut down by its parent company, Pearson.

Despite a government subsidy to participate in education-based apprenticeship schemes, the programme is no longer financially sustainable for Pearson. The closure will impact the PRCA, which has a partnership with Pearson in Practice to provide apprenticeships and skills training to young people entering the PR industry.

The PRCA says that its apprenticeship programme will continue without impediment.

Director general Francis Ingham says, “The PRCA has always 'owned' the apprenticeship framework, having constructed it in conjunction with employers. The deliverers of the framework are all PRCA approved trainers. The sole difference will be that at some point in the future, training will cease to take place at Pearson premises.”

The announcement of Pearson in Practice’s closure comes just three days after the minister for skills, Matthew Hancock, announced that high-level apprenticeships with at least 30 government-funded employers will be recognised on par with their degrees equivalents. As these will all be employee-led, Pearson will continue to offer services to employer-based apprenticeships, of which it is involved in 170,000.

John Fallon, Pearson's chief executive, says, “We very much regret the decision to plan for closure, but we believe we have explored and exhausted all alternatives. Our focus in the coming months will be on working with our partners in the further education sector and industry to ensure minimum disruption to learners who are currently enrolled in one of our programmes.”

To read more about the PRCA's apprenticeship scheme, click here.