placeholder
Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

UK’s leading apprenticeship matching service announces £1 million investment from Nesta and the City & Guilds Group

The UK’s leading apprenticeship matching service, GetMyFirstJob, has today announced £1 million in new investment from Nesta Impact Investments and the City & Guilds Group following a successful funding round.

The announcement comes as new research from GetMyFirstJob reveals the vast majority of young people (98 percent) believe that more can be done at school and college level to help students find an apprenticeship. Of those surveyed, only 34 percent felt that their school or college provided sufficient information about apprenticeships and their benefits.

Launched in 2012, GetMyFirstJob is an innovative web platform that matches young people to the right apprenticeship based on their skillset and needs. With over 250,000 candidates registered since inception, GetMyFirstJob processes over 30,000 applications each month and works with over 150 colleges, employers and providers nationwide. 

The new investment follows a period of rapid growth for GetMyFirstJob since a previous funding round in January 2015, during which time the business has grown by over 500%.

John Yates, New Ventures Director at the City & Guilds Group said: “Our New Venture Fund invests in businesses and initiatives that help people get into a job, develop on the job, and progress into the next job. Apprenticeships are a really important way of helping people into work, so we’re delighted to be investing in GetMyFirstJob. Its innovative technology has helped thousands of young people and employers to find the right apprenticeship programme for them and their business. And, thanks to the team’s focus on great customer service, they’ve seen huge success so far. We look forward to working with GetMyFirstJob to support even more growth in the future.”

Isabel Newman, Investment Manager at Nesta Impact Investments said: “GetMyFirstJob has grown from strength to strength since our initial investment so we are extremely pleased to announce this second round of funding alongside the City & Guilds Group who, we believe, will play a significant role in helping the business to scale. The investment will enable the company to provide quality careers advice and recruitment support to tens of thousands more young people making the transition from school into further education and employment.”

On today’s announcement, David Allison, Managing Director of GetMyFirstJob said: “We are delighted to be working with Nesta Impact Investments and the City & Guilds Group as we embark on the next phase of growth for GetMyFirstJob. I am confident that this new investment will allow the business to accelerate its expansion further, and will help us provide even more solutions to our ever-growing base of candidates, employers, providers and colleges.”

Allison added: “With the new Apprenticeship Levy coming into effect, it is clear that employers are demanding increasingly high levels of service in helping to identify the right candidates for their businesses. As the largest provider of candidate recruitment systems to the UK apprenticeship sector, GetMyFirstJob – with the support of Nesta and the City & Guilds Group – will only continue to grow as the market-leading choice for young people and employers across the country.”

www.getmyfirstjob.co.uk