DMA Insights: Apprenticeships Are a Win-Win

Apprenticeships, if well managed, really are a win-win strategy.

This is something we have recently learned thanks to our ‘Apprenticeships: The Hidden Potential’ report, supported by DM Trust. We listened to the experiences of many professionals whose businesses have decided to embrace this recruitment strategy and found out how the process has benefited them and their employees.

We asked about the benefits they have seen during the months (or years) they have been involved with apprentices, their managers, and apprenticeships’ providers.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to see yourselves apprenticeships’ hidden potential and how you can benefit from it.

The Apprentice’s Win

For young people who are keen to enter the industry straight after school or college, apprenticeships are the perfect opportunity to gain experience, knowledge and at the same time provide an income.

Indeed, apprentices are normally recruited based on their soft skills (e.g. eagerness to learn, passion, etc) and personality, rather than their technical skills or experience in the sector/industry.

Through an apprenticeship they are offered the opportunity to gain experience of being in a working environment, apply technical skills and gain knowledge.

The Business’ Win

Apprenticeships programmes have the potential of making talent more diverse – representative of the UK society and customers, but also able to bring different and fresh perspectives. Nonetheless, apprenticeships can support the local community as there is a chance to bring skills that aren’t currently available or developed in a specific geographical area.

The skills businesses can pick up from managing a diverse team can only be beneficial for the organisation, as many studies have already shown. Knowing this and being able to bring evidence into board-level discussions might make a big difference on the decision of whether to start or continue an apprenticeship scheme.

Apprentices, often experiencing work for the first time, can learn directly from the best: you. In other words, they can become your businesses’ most qualified specialists. They will grow along with your business and they will get exposure industry-wide, upskilling above and beyond their team. Moreover, they won’t bring along bad habits learnt in other organisations or teams.

Must-Knows and Must-Haves

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1. Take responsibility: Starting from the internal mindset – apprenticeships aren’t just a good cause but are a privilege. Therefore, as a business, you need to decide if that specific standard is right for you and your business. A thoughtless approach on the set up can lead to a very frustrating experience on both sides.
   
   The apprentices will put their trust in your business from day one, therefore, you need to make sure they can access everything that is necessary for them to get their qualification and live a purposeful personal and professional experience.
   
2. Plan in advance: Before starting, it’s key that you plan and agree the training time with the team and the line manager who will lead the apprentice, not only the HR professional. It’s important such agreement get discussed and clearly stated with those who are involved with the apprentice on the front line. Apprentices need to have support in place: they should know where to go and ask, even simple, questions. In addition, line managers need to have access to relevant sources of information and training to lead young talent.
   
3. Include in-person interactions: Of course, meeting in person has been hard for the last year and each one of us has had to deal with Zoom and Teams fatigue. Therefore, keep in mind how hard it can be for someone new to learn and build skills remotely. From home, apprentices lack that sounding board that a team and office can naturally provide.

Having a cohort of apprentices can be very helpful, but make sure it’s an open cohort so they get to interact with everyone. Simple things like creating open social contexts can make a massive difference on the final success of an apprenticeship.

Have we been able to show you the hidden potential of apprenticeships?

To find out more, download the free report and listen to the related webinar.