6 Supports for SME's recruiting their First Apprentice

This week I caught up with some local SME’s who are involved with recruiting apprenticeships to get an idea of the struggles they face. One person I spoke to was Ryan Cox from ComTech.

Two quotes summed up the early careers experience:

“Investing in your future workforce in the form of apprentices is without question one of the most rewarding experience”

And

“What I didn’t appreciate was the amount of time and resource to support an apprentice during the programs lifecycle.”

Recruiting and managing apprentices is bolted onto his existing role and luckily he is an advocate for apprenticeships as many SMEs don’t have the capability to devote time to a project such as Early Careers.

Some of the things he manages on top of his role include:

• Relationship building with colleges/training providers
• Administration of apprenticeship paperwork
• Managing additional schemes such as work experience and T-Levels
• Interviews and offers to apprentices

This is across multiple apprentices which can cause many small businesses to run away into the sunset!

Ryan is keen to see these processes simplified, but for now see below 6 ways you can get support when taking on apprentices.

In my previous role working for a training provider, I was tasked with getting more employers to take on apprentices in the local area. This lead to me speaking with many SMEs and handling lots of objections.

One thing that came across loud and clear is that SMEs want to be involved with apprenticeships, they really do.

However, it is hard!

The time, money, and the effort that is involved can be debilitating when your priority is keeping your current employees paid and your business afloat.

A lot of small businesses might not have a dedicated HR person or at least one with the time to spend on exploring apprenticeships.

One of the main reasons I write these newsletters, when I should be watching TV with my feet up, is so I can support my local community in creating opportunities and elevating their businesses.

A lot of the hurdles they have in front of them may appear impossible to jump over, but more often than not we can remove the hurdles altogether with the right advice.

Information is only useful if you see it, and I think within the world of apprenticeships we often see that information go missing when we get to smaller businesses due to it not being a priority within their organisation.

We know, and I have spoken a lot about, the levy and how small businesses can access 95-100% funding for the apprenticeship cost depending on age, as well as incentives of ï¿¡1,000 for 16-18 year olds. That alleviates the training cost.

What other support is out there?

In my experience, the support is overwhelming. The apprenticeship space is filled with positive, helpful people.

Below I will mention just a few that could really elevate your business and provide that support you need to take on your first apprentice.

1) Do your research

I would suggest your first port of call should be Google. Do some research, find out as much as you can online so that you can be informed when having further conversations. If you are very green when it comes to apprenticeships, take a look at Amazing Apprenticeships. This is a website dedicated to providing resources to students, schools and employers. You can find news articles and related information, but the best thing I can signpost you to is an article titled “Recruit Your First Apprentice” which will give you all the insights you need to start your journey into apprenticeship recruitment. Other sites you can look at include The Education Landscape, which is a really useful website with handy guides for employers. It’s put together by some of the organisations I mention above, and centres around all facets of the education and skills system so you get a well rounded approach to how your organisation could benefit from apprenticeships, T-levels and more. This should then lead you to the Governments apprenticeship website:

2) apprenticeships.gov.uk

Everything you need to know about how apprenticeships can fire up your career or organisation.

Here you can select “Hire an Apprentice”. This will lead you to a brilliant resource where you can understand the ins and outs of taking on apprentice as well as benefits and most importantly what funding is available to you. You will also see the tab “Recruit and Apprentice” which is the governments site you can use to advertise apprenticeship vacancies, it’s temperamental but could be useful as a free way to recruit for your company to a targeted audience. You may want to compliment it with Indeed/Linkedin Jobs also so you spread your net a bit wider.

3) Training Providers

Once you have established you want to commit to this you need to find a training provider who will deliver your apprenticeship. Aside from this, they will also be your expert friend in guiding you through the more tedious aspects of apprenticeships, such as compliance etc. You can also find a provider through the government website, however if you are a small business you may just want to reach out to your local training provider. Now, they may not deliver the specific apprenticeship you require but they should be able to point you in the direction of someone who can. If they do, fantastic. They will also ensure the standard you want , matches with your business needs. You should lean on them for support and connections to alleviate some of the administration and paperwork involved in setting up your online apprenticeship account. Setting up the online account was one of the biggest headaches my employers found, so take the help when offered, it’s not very intuitive and we have been doing it every day. Your training provider will also be able to support you in recruitment, the college I worked for advertised on behalf of employers which was very handy. Some training providers will also support in the interview and selection phase which is great weight off your shoulders. They should have access to lots of young people looking for career opportunities so you have a captive market there to use!

4) Careers Hubs

Careers Hubs are another vital resource when it comes to engaging with a talent pool. One of the biggest complaints I see is that they had a bad experience with an apprentice. Often employers forget that apprentices are normal employees. We have all had a bad colleague, you need to reflect on your recruitment process that let the bad egg though not the bad egg itself. Careers Hubs allow you to interact with the talent pool from a young age, raising your awareness in schools and colleges to make yourself a destination to apply to when it comes the time. Now that this would be applicable to high volume recruiters as it would very time consuming for small employers recruiting only one apprentice. Nevertheless you could find careers hubs being able to advertise your opportunities for free very quickly to lots of careers advisors. Generally they are very well connected and placed to support your recruitment activity.

5) Levy Transfers

Apprenticeship & Skills Hub Going back to the funding element, if recruiting an apprentice over 21 years old you will be required to fund 5% of the course cost as an SME. For example , the engineering technician standard cost ï¿¡26,000 so you would be required to pay ï¿¡1,300 of this. To alleviate the cost you can look into a levy transfer on the government website. This is where a large business uses their levy funds to pay the apprenticeships cost on your behalf. Even better if you live in certain counties as there are organisations setup locally to support levy transfers. In Hampshire we have The Apprenticeship & Skills Hub, they are a fantastically helpful service who will even support you in setting up your apprenticeship account.

6) Additional Funding

Continuing on the vein of financial support you will find organisations out there ready to support with additional grants, such as CITB who support carpentry apprenticeship employers with grants up to ï¿¡6,000 last time I checked! I am sure you could find similar organisations in various industries, particularly where there is a skills gap.

So, to summarise, it’s not going to be easy, but hopefully the above resources will make it easier, and if it helps one employer recruit an apprentice then I’ll be happy.