Department for Education

In 2017, the Department for Education faced a significant challenge. Apprenticeships were central to the UK’s skills agenda, yet the digital infrastructure supporting its flagship initiatives - the National Apprenticeship & Skills Awards (NASA) and National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) - required rapid evolution. The first engagement was ambitious: rebuild a national service in just six weeks. Through a competitive process, the DfE selected Wubbleyou as its technology partner. What began under tight deadlines developed into an 8+ year partnership built on trust, delivery and mutual respect - now secured through consecutive competitive tender wins. Today, Wubbleyou manages six complex but interlinked apprenticeship platforms, supporting 11 stakeholder groups and facilitating over 1 million interactions annually. These flagship products serve hundreds of thousands of users across the UK. The impact has been measurable. In year one alone, high-quality applications increased by 59%. Since 2018, applications to the awards have grown by over 60%. National Apprenticeship Week now reaches a national audience in the hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands of resource downloads annually. Crucially, automation within the system now saves teams hundreds of hours of administrative time each year. This shift enables staff to focus on outreach, storytelling and improving user experience rather than manual process management. User satisfaction remains high, with 95% of users rating the platform very easy, easy or average to use. The partnership continues to evolve. The next phase includes AI-assisted applications, smarter analytics and increasingly personalised user journeys - extending the platform’s reach and impact while maintaining reliability and scalability. At its core, the collaboration demonstrates how long-term digital partnership - built on trust and shared ambition - can transform large-scale public services while maintaining human-centred design.