23 Jun 2023
Finding and keeping the right apprentices for your company can be difficult. Challenges can come with attracting apprentices, and in working out how to run an apprenticeship scheme effectively.
As you’re probably well aware, apprenticeship schemes can be a great way of employing people. They can produce well trained employees that are likely to stay with your company for years to come, if managed correctly.
Such schemes give apprentices a great opportunity to land on two feet and start a successful career by working within different roles to find what suits them best. This makes an apprenticeship a great option for both employers and employees, and is a key reason for their popularity.
Define What You Are Offering
First things first, it’s important to clearly define what your apprenticeship will consist of: is it a technical – hands on – apprenticeship? Maybe it’s more of a clerical position? Either way, it’s important to make this clear, to ensure any applicants are interested in what’s on offer and to ensure neither party’s time is wasted.
There are already many apprenticeship standards on offer that can offer structure and training for apprentices in different industries. These apprenticeship standards are a standardised learning experience that means people in similar occupations who undertake them can be guaranteed to have learned the same things by the time they have been completed.
There is an End Point Assessment when an apprenticeship standard has been completed and this tests the knowledge that has been picked up during the apprenticeship to ensure that the apprentice knows the things that they should.
Provide a Clear Structure
Be sure to structure how you plan to carry out the apprenticeship scheme, include aspects of as many different roles and departments as possible. Any apprentices that have the opportunity to see a wider cross section of your business will find it easier to understand and respect your values and how the business runs, but will also find the role that fits them the best.
Of course there is nothing wrong with job-specific apprenticeships, though candidates who aren’t clear about their ideal career path may find these too restrictive and wish that they had opted for something with more overarching possibilities and potential.
Personal Support and Mentoring
One very important aspect of apprenticeships is mentoring: having existing staff to coach and support apprentices, and keep track of progress to make sure they can carry out a role to the best of their ability. This will help the apprentice settle into the company, but also allows employers to gather and act on feedback to assess how your apprentices are faring.
Being able to provide support and mentorship to an apprentice can be a really rewarding part of the job for many employees. It can be an excellent feeling to see them coming on and to watch their confidence increasing and skills developing before your eyes.
Planning and Setting Objectives
Have a clear set of objectives you wish the apprentice to meet, both in terms of learning and for personal development. Setting objectives can offer the chance to evaluate them against many different kinds of criteria and this can clarify how they can fit into your organisational structures. This will allow you to objectively evaluate which longer term role is best suited to their skill set.
It can also be important to consider if any life training would benefit your apprentice, especially if you’re hiring school leavers or undergraduates. This could be anything from life skills to personal finance but might make the difference in motivating your apprentices, making them more productive and less distracted at work.
Being able to offer these types of training may help them to manage their own finances better and allow them to settle more happily into the workplace, knowing that they are in a more secure position than when they started.
For some young people living on their own for the first time, even simple cookery classes can make a difference as that is something that isn’t passed on often enough at home and many get their own place and struggle to make healthy, nutritious meals.
Ask the apprentices what they would most benefit from and try to tailor any personal development training to fit their individual needs. They may be very self-sufficient in some ways but lacking in others and this is a chance to really help them to get their lives on track.
Reward Structure
Make sure you define and publicise a well-structured reward & recognition programme for your apprentices. Just like any other vacancy, having a programme in place can help attract people to you and encourages the development of certain standards and behaviours, helping business run smoothly.
If you are able, and your business can support it, consider offering them more than the apprentice minimum wage, to make it clear that they are valued members of the team and will be treated and remunerated as such.
And finally, don’t forget that an apprenticeship is only an efficient way of recruiting if it is successful; it takes a long time for an apprenticeship to run its course, making it time consuming and expensive when not handled correctly. Many businesses are concerned that by running an apprenticeship scheme they will be doing the hard work and training a young person only for them to go and join another company as soon as they have completed it.
In reality, most apprentices will very happily stay with the company that they have apprenticed with for several years after their apprenticeship has successfully concluded. This gives time for the company’s investment to more than pay off in terms of their contribution to the organisation.
In cases where apprentices quickly move on after an apprenticeship has finished, it is often because there were unresolved issues during their time with the organisation and these may have involved bullying from people who were supposed to be their mentors. If an apprentice wants to leave once their apprenticeship is finished, be sure to take the time to sit down with them for an exit interview to ascertain whether this was the case.
