Talking Point: Apprentice week
This week is Apprentice Week, and here Andrew Conlan-Trant, head of TBG Learning – a third sector youth and adult learning organisation – looks at how the whole subject of apprentices is suddenly hot news for industry.
Three or four months ago, youth unemployment hit the million mark and that appears to have been a real psychological trigger point for many people.
As a result, training and up-skilling has become a similar hot topic. That is also reflected in the budgets associated with helping to solve the problem. There was more than £1.3bn of funding for apprenticeships in 2010/11 and almost 60 per cent of that was for 16-18-year-olds.
The last 12 months has seen a greater consolidation of the message around unemployment. The launch of the Work Programme from the Department for Work and Pensions brought this to the fore.
Parallel to that has been the focus by the Department of Business Innovation and Skills on the skills gaps and how those gaps have to be filled. All those things happening at the same time means there has been a real push behind the message.
As a result, employers are much more aware of the resources and opportunities there are out there for training their own staff so they can improve the skills and therefore their output.
Our approach is that everyone who is unemployed wants to work and has the capacity to work – but not everybody knows it.
If you have been out of work for a long time, whatever your age, you may not be used to the culture or practice of work. Sometimes the easiest thing in life is not to change what you're used to.
When people are challenged and encouraged to look at things differently through training or help to get back into work, our experience is that they respond well.
We see it in all programmes – being shown the advantages of changing direction through opportunity does encourage people greatly.
Businesses, particularly small ones, don't have much time to think about how to recruit. They have a need at a point in time and they want the process to be easy, and often the easiest way has been to go to a recruitment agency.
Apprenticeships can offer an alternative to that, whereby we can offer skilled people who have come through one of our training programmes already and continue to support and train while in employment – at no cost to the employer in many cases.
As an employee you can recruit someone quickly who can fill the gap you have but the great thing is you then get low or no cost training and you can induct the person even more to the needs and culture of your business.
Employers know that they need to give new recruits time. People are in business mostly for long-term gain and they have to look at recruitment like that and apprentices really allow employers to create staff who totally suit their needs.
All research points to the fact that taking apprentices is good for a business.
Once they are committed and know the way you want them to work, then your business can only gain.
If nothing else, please use Apprenticeship Week to look at the possibility of taking on an apprentice – it could be the best thing you do this year.
