Greater Manchester Mayor optimistic about the Manchester Baccalaureate

Andy Burnham spoke to apprentices at Auto Trader on Friday about his plans for the Manchester baccalaureate that will launch in September.

The qualification will be a much more technical option taken in high school, allowing the opportunity to go into apprenticeships instead of University; it will run alongside the current English baccalaureate.

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham said, “Imagine a Year 11 in Greater Manchester can go on a portal, GMAX, Greater Manchester Apprenticeships and careers service and can see all of the T-Levels and the company placements linked to them.

“At 16, you would be applying straight to Auto Trader or the BBC or whoever else we can get work placements from, that really raises people's aspiration and gives people a path to those companies who perhaps can't see it.”

Over 60 businesses have announced their support for the MBacc qualification, Auto Trader being one of them.

Chief People and Operations Officer at Auto Trader, Alison Ross MBE, said, "We think the MBacc is an absolutely great idea.

“Auto Trader is a Tech company based in the centre of Manchester, and we have about 800 people, 300 of them are engineers, but it's very difficult to recruit good engineers.

“Young people in the region just don’t understand the really high-quality jobs there are in the tech sector just a tram ride away so we want to support the MBacc.”