Signed first.
One plain-English contract, written by Omose and checked by a solicitor before anyone signs.
Ownership Contract
Example only
SignedDayo, host
SignedTom, apprentice
SignedOmose
The UK’s first ownership apprenticeship
Start as the apprentice.Finish as an owner.
Omose places someone aged 18 to 30 inside a profitable small business for two years, at the going rate. They learn how all of it works. How they become an owner is signed before their first day.
Most apprenticeships end with a certificate. Ours end with ownership.
The qualification is still there. Every place is a real apprenticeship, with a registered training provider. What changes is what comes next.
Young people can't get into ownership. Owners can't get out of it.
- 981,000
people aged 16 to 24 not in work, education or training.
Source: ONS, April to June 2026 (opens in a new tab)- 620,000
UK company directors aged 67 or over.
Source: Bowmore analysis of Companies House filings, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
The UK treats these as two problems. We treat them as one.
What two years looks like.
Dayo runs a joinery firm in Salford. Tom is 22 and has never priced a job. The names are made up. The process is not.
An example pair, not real people.
Day one
The ending is signed before the beginning.
Before Tom picks up a tool, he and Dayo sign one contract. It sets his pay, what he will be taught and how he becomes an owner.
Month 6
Tom prices his first staircase.
Timber, labour days, margin, and what to add when the house is older than it looks. Dayo checks it and changes one line.
Month 12
Tom chooses his ending.
His own company, a branch of Dayo’s firm or a growing stake in it. He picks his own company. The terms were agreed a year ago, so there is nothing to argue about.
Month 18
The business starts to exist.
A company name. Insurance quotes. Suppliers who know him by name. Dayo makes the introductions he promised.
Ownership Day
Tom stops being an apprentice.
The qualification is done and the fund is released. Tom’s company opens under his own name, with Dayo as a shareholder and a backer. The first invoice has Tom’s name on it.
Within three years
Then Tom trains someone.
Every new owner agrees to host an apprentice of their own. That is how one cohort becomes the next.
Three ways to own it.
Chosen at month 12. All three are agreed before day one, so nobody is arguing at month 24.
Your own company
The apprentice starts a company in their own name. The host takes a minority stake and becomes a backer.
A branch
The host opens a new site or team. The apprentice runs it and owns a share of it.
A staged stake
The apprentice takes a growing share of the host’s own business. The natural choice for an owner who wants to step back.
A promise with money behind it.
Plenty of owners have told someone they will get a share one day. Here it is written down, signed and paid towards every month.
Funded every month.
The host pays into the Ownership Fund. It is held away from the host's business and away from Omose, and both sides see the same balance.
Open on both sides.
Two minutes a week from each of them. The apprentice can read every word the host writes about them.
Every owner trains the next.
Each new owner agrees to host an apprentice of their own within three years. So the first cohort creates the next one. Every business it starts can create new jobs, and another way in for someone with no money and no contacts.
Greater Manchester is first. The system is designed to travel.
Be one of the first.
The founding cohort starts in Greater Manchester in 2027, with up to 25 pairs. Registering costs nothing and commits you to nothing.