Creating apprenticeships with Vodafone

Henley Business School is delighted to be working with Vodafone to support Vodafone employee learners on the Senior Leader Apprenticeship | Future Leaders programme. This programme has been designed to support talent in the early stages of their leadership development journey and prepare them as future leaders for Vodafone.

Lucy Unwin, Head of Learning & Performance Business Partnering, Culture and Engagement, said

"Vodafone’s purpose is to connect for a better future by using technology to improve lives, digitalise critical sectors and enable inclusive and sustainable digital societies. Our people are key to making this happen. Supporting programmes like this makes good business sense, as our employees get hands-on training and qualifications whilst being able to put the skills they learn into practice in their everyday roles at Vodafone. We get a generation of highly skilled leaders across our business helping us grow and delivering the best possible service and solutions for our customers.

"Henley’s ability to facilitate large groups of learners from a variety of backgrounds with different interests while designing the learning so it’s relevant to our specific needs is really beneficial to our business and people. We are really excited to see the impact of this with our future leaders."

Candidates were selected having been identified as a top talent in their respective function, with clear aspiration to progress to a people leader role. Applicants were required to hold some professional qualifications as pre-requisites including Level 2 English and Maths (GCSEs at Grade A*-C or equivalent). Whilst applicants were encouraged to hold an undergraduate degree (2:1 or above, or equivalent) from a UK or internationally recognised university, candidates who did not hold this qualification were also considered based on their individual experience.

A lack of professional development support comes amongst the top five reasons employees leave a business, especially for talented individual contributors who want to take the next step and progress to a leadership role. Henley’s Senior Leadership Apprenticeship addresses this gap and helps Vodafone retain their future leaders.

Dr Anne Dibley, Head of Apprenticeships at Henley Business School said:

“Apprenticeships present us with a unique opportunity to deploy Henley’s world-class applied research and people development expertise to support the advancement of national productivity and social mobility agenda. While developing great professionals and outstanding, responsible business leaders is at the heart of Henley apprenticeships, we don’t just develop skills and knowledge but inspire organisations to build a diverse workforce fit for the new world of work, and that’s why we are excited about this partnership with Vodafone.”