What Apprenticeship Strategy?
Apprenticeships, you don’t need an apprenticeship strategy, you just hire a young person and sign them up to college – don’t you?
Well yes, you could adopt this approach, but I strongly recommend you don’t. Would you be this flippant with purchasing a new piece of equipment for your business, I doubt it, so why would you take this approach with hiring an apprentice?
Hiring an apprentice is an investment and like any other business investment you would carry out due diligence, and the same approach needs to be applied to your apprenticeship programme.
Grab yourself a blank sheet of paper and start by looking at:
Why do you want to employ an apprentice(s)?
Where within the business will you deploy the apprentice(s)?
Who do you want to attract to apply for your apprenticeship(s)
Basic stuff but essential to start to build your apprentice strategy. Oh, and please don’t fall into the trap of thinking apprenticeships are purely for young people looking for their first job, the age profile of people starting apprenticeships changed between 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, with a higher proportion of starts being over the age of 24, 46% of the apprentices who started in 2018/2019 were ages 25. The age group with the largest increase was by those aged between 35 and 44, with 21% more starts than in 2017/2018*
Also, let’s not forget the State Pension age for men and women will be increasing to 66 in October 2020, so not everyone over the age of 50 will be cruising gently towards their retirement. It is also being predicated there will be an increase in the number of people looking for work due to some companies being unable to reinstate all their furloughed employees, so now is a good time to look for people seeking their second career.
So now you have your foundation to your strategy, start to widen your focus to the short, mid and long-term business needs ensuring you align your apprenticeship programme to your succession plan, especially for hard to recruit for areas. Once you have identified the needs and aim of the apprenticeship, you will have the basis for your apprentice strategy.
Communication is a key element of the strategy, make sure you share the aims of the apprenticeship throughout the business, especially to those the apprentice will be working with, and invite them to get involved at the early stages to help shape the on-site training the apprentice will need to complete.
Remember an apprenticeship is a collaboration between the apprentice, the business and the training provider, don’t put the onus on one element alone, they are all vital components of any apprenticeship.
* taken from the House of Commons Library, Briefing Paper Number 06113, 9th April 2020 – Apprenticeship Statistics by Niamh Foley