Welcome to OAS
Oxfordshire Advanced Skills (OAS) offers high quality training for apprentice engineers and technicians across a range of businesses located throughout Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley.
The OAS Apprenticeship Programme provides training on the very latest cutting-edge technology, alongside traditional engineering skills.
Download employer brochureFutureproof your workforce with an advanced manufacturing apprentice
Get ahead of the competition and start planning your apprenticeships!
At OAS, we’re helping industry to create the next generation of advanced manufacturing talent with apprenticeship training from Levels 3 to 6 delivered at our state-of-the-art training centre.
Contact us today to discuss your apprentice requirements!
Get in touchWhy apprenticeships?
The benefits of apprenticeships for young people are well publicised, but why should an employer look to apprenticeships to develop your business?
- Address skills shortages
- Bring a fresh perspective and new skills
- Increased employee satisfaction and loyalty, leading to lower staff turnover
- Supporting an apprentice is a great development opportunity for existing employees
Why choose OAS?
The OAS Apprenticeship Programme provides training on the very latest cutting-edge technology, alongside traditional engineering skills. We pride ourselves as a centre of excellence, training and developing the next generation of highly qualified engineers for companies in the Oxfordshire area.
Additionally, OAS was rated Good by Ofsted on 10th February 2023, with Outstanding ratings in both ‘Behaviour and Attitudes’ and ‘Personal Development’.
Apprenticeship Levy and funding
Now that the Apprenticeship Levy is in place, all UK employers with a payroll of more than £3 million per year will be required to invest 0.5% of their annual salary bill into apprenticeships.
The new government scheme is targeted with funding three million apprenticeships by 2020 by improving the quality of training provision and in turn, the quantity of apprentices and the number of employment opportunities.
We can support you in utilising your Apprenticeship Levy with high class training for your apprentices at our state of the art facility and allowing access to the latest new and emerging technologies.
If you have exhausted your Apprenticeship Levy, you can enter a coinvestment agreement where you can still benefit from our high class training with a 5% contribution towards the training costs.
A hi-tech partnership
OAS is a partnership between the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, who between them have a history of apprentice training in science and engineering stretching back more than 70 years.
With support from Government funding through UKAEA, our brand-new training centre at UKAEA’s Culham Science Centre opened in September 2019 and is fully furnished with the latest industry equipment, including robotics, electronics and additional advanced manufacturing technologies.
Our new centre is managed by our apprentice training partner, MTC Apprenticeships. The MTC’s advanced engineering apprenticeship helps learners develop the skills needed to deliver the technologies of the future in the high value manufacturing sector.
“Once our apprentices return to our site after the first year off-the-job at the training centre, they will arrive with a maturity and foundation skill set that will allow them to hit the ground running. We’re at the forefront of our industry and we are always looking to recruit apprentices that will stay with us for a long time to maintain and build on our international reputation, which is what I feel we have found.”
TERRY DOWNES
WORKSHOP MANAGER, AS SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTS
“Apprentices quickly develop the behaviours to become highly valuable employees. They wear their employers’ uniform with pride when they are at OAS.
Staff routinely obtain employers’ views in shaping the curriculum to meet future skills needs in engineering. This means that apprentices become equipped with the skills required by employers.
Trainers teach apprentices to use computer aided design (CAD) to develop new products using rapid prototyping technology effectively. As a result, apprentices are effectively prepared to undertake a wide range of engineering tasks at work.”
Ofsted Inspection Report
7th to 10th February 2023
Get in touch
Want to understand more about how OAS can help you find and fund your next apprentice?
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