The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has joined forces with business apprenticeship issuer Skills CFA to develop advanced and higher level apprenticeships in recruitment.

Skills CFA develops business standards and apprenticeships representing 10m employees in the UK. The REC joins Skills CFA’s Pan Sector Partnership, whose nine member organisations include the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) among other industry bodies.

As reported in a Recruiter feature (‘The apprentice – you're hired’) in August 2011, this is not the first time apprentices have been taken on by recruitment organisations. Indeed, training firm Expedient Training Consultancy’s recruitment apprenticeship scheme, which opened for the first time to applicants last summer, included the entry level Certificate in Recruitment Practice delivered by the REC.

REC chief executive Kevin Green says: “We’ve had very enthusiastic support from some of the UK’s largest recruiters for this project, and we will work with all interested parties to make this a significant development for the recruitment industry over the next year.”

Jenny Hewell, his counterpart at Skills CFA, adds: “Recruitment is a people-centric industry and our standards of service and professionalism can be greatly enhanced by a systematic approach to attracting and developing the people who chose to become recruiters.”

“With nine other partner organisations in the same partnership we are committed to providing the best opportunities for developing and testing world class business skills for organisations that have gaps in their skill base, hard to fill posts or sturdy competition in their sector.”