Aptem is delighted to announce that it has been awarded £46,531 from Innovate UK to update its employability platform, Aptem Employ. The grant will help address rising unemployment from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Along with the widespread loss of life, Covid-19 has severely affected the economy and the jobs market. Unemployment grew in the UK by 70% in April 2020 alone, while job vacancies have declined by a half. Many talented, dedicated people will struggle to find work.

Which is where Aptem Employ comes in. We provide the employment sector with advanced tools to help ease the pain of job searching. Aptem Employ has:
• A job seeker portal that enables job search, CV and eCV building, assessment, training delivery, receipt of guidance and activity management.
• A coach portal that enables active support, monitoring and interaction with the job seeker, and case management.
• An operations portal that enables contract configuration, activity and progress reporting, as well as compliance.
• An employer portal that enables vacancies to be uploaded and applicants managed.
• A full learning management system, AEB support, contractual compliance, dashboard reporting and data-driven nudges.

The funding was provided through the Government’s modern industrial strategy by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation. A record 8,600 innovative companies applied and 800 were selected for partial or full grant funding. The Innovate UK grant will help us fast-track the relaunch of Aptem Employ by funding research, development, and project management costs.

Aptem develops award winning SaaS technology solutions to enable skills development and employability and has deep roots in the employability sector. Our company started in 2009 with a platform – then called MyWorkSearch - to help those losing their job in the financial crisis secure re-employment.

MyWorkSearch was extremely successful. It was the largest provider to the Department for Work and Pension’s Support for Newly Unemployed Professionals scheme, with over 22,500 jobseekers enrolled. Working with numerous employability providers in the UK and Australia and supporting tens of thousands of jobseekers, the platform had a demonstrable impact - job seekers secured employment 50% faster overall, and by 90 days were over three times more likely to have found work.

In recent years the Aptem platform has benefited from millions in investment, including a major interface redesign. Since unemployment was low, we weren’t actively selling our Employ solution and therefore hadn’t applied these enhancements to it. With Innovate UK’s support we are updating Aptem Employ and in August will relaunch the solution as a state of the art Progressive Web App (PWA) – delivering the powerful functionality Employ has always had, in an attractive, modern and accessible interface.

Richard Alberg, CEO of Aptem, said:
“We are excited and thrilled to receive this grant and would like to extend our thanks to Innovate UK for seeing and supporting the potential of our updated platform, Aptem Employ, at this critical time.
“At Aptem, we are dedicated to creating scalable employability and training solutions to help citizens in the UK and beyond realise their aspirations. We are confident that Aptem Employ will be of real assistance to the employability market as it seeks to address widespread joblessness over the coming year.”

About Innovate UK:
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas. It funds businesses and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business development into R&D.
UK Research and Innovation is a new organisation that brings together the UK Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England into a single organisation to create the best environment for research and innovation to flourish. The vision is to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation. For more information visit www.ukri.org.

Contact:
For Press Enquiries:
Isla Lightfoot, Marketing Director, Aptem.
islal@mwstechnology.com
07989 969474
www.aptem.co.uk