Member Article

National Apprenticeship Week: What do South East businesses think?

National Apprenticeship Week is a government-led initiative, which aims to highlight the importance of apprenticeships and the benefits for young people, businesses and the economy in general. Late last year, PM David Cameron vowed to create 3m apprenticeships in an attempt to quell youth unemployment. We asked SMEs across the South East to share their opinions on apprenticeship schemes and how they affect both young people and businesses across the region.

Ben Pike, director of Slough-based QA Apprenticeships, which provides training for young people across the UK, believes that going to university is no longer the only route to success: “Opportunities are limited for young people, and there is this idea that in order to be successful, one HAS to go to university but that’s just not the case.

“We all learn in different ways and with new avenues open to school leavers such as apprenticeships, 16-18 year olds are more empowered to achieve success and gain a sense of self awareness. These programmes offer wages which provides a genuine level of independence as opposed to student debt.”

Spencer Mehlmann, managing director of Essex-based training provider Not Going To Uni, also believes that young people should be encouraged to think outside of the academic box: “At Not Going to Uni we’re delighted to see that the profile of National Apprenticeship Week has never been higher.

“We work with a wide range of employers in the region to promote apprenticeship opportunities, and have seen a 32% YOY increase in Apprenticeships positions in the South East.

“Apprenticeships are rightfully being seen as a viable alternative for young people to achieve their career aspirations.” Previously, apprenticeships were primarily available in ‘blue-collar’ industries and there was also a significant gender divide. Nowadays, there are apprenticeship schemes available across the board - from marketing to finance, young people can train in any discipline they like, without having a degree. Even Surrey-based party planning and events management company is getting in on the apprenticeship buzz. Mike Walker, managing director at MGN Events said: “As a young entrepreneur myself, I am a great supporter of apprenticeships. We have two apprentices at the moment who I hope will go on and become full time members of staff.

“As a business owner, my experience of having apprentices within the business has overall been a very positive one.

“For our business, the advantages are clear – we are investing in training somebody from scratch in our way of working and giving them a complete understanding of our business. The disadvantage is the amount of time involved in getting them up to speed on the nature of what we do. However, six months into training for our current apprentices and we already have two highly competent members of staff who are an asset to our business – for us that’s a bonus.”

It’s not only young people that have gained from the increased government focus on apprenticeships. Leona Barr Jones, HR expert and managing director of Barr Jones Associates, believes apprenticeships can only benefit employers: “If you’re an SME and you are interested in taking on an apprentice, one of the first things you’ll need is a training provider so choose one who ensures that both you as the employer and your apprentice are fully supported.

“For an employer, apprentices provide a great opportunity for on-the-job training in partnership with a local college or training organisation that takes care of the ’off-the-job training for you.

“For a young person, it can provide the opportunity to have a real job with training so that they can ‘earn while they learn’ and of course, very importantly, they can get recognised qualifications along the way.

“The majority of our SME clients who have apprentices say that apprentices have increased productivity, staff moral and retention and bring fresh thinking and ideas to their businesses.”

However, hiring apprentices is not always a walk in the park and many businesses find it can be hard to recruit adequately trained individuals. Surrey-based training firm Acuity Training says that, in its experience, there is a distinct air of apathy amongst youngsters and vital skills needed by most businesses are sadly lacking.

Manager of Acuity Training, Anne Carew, said: “Due to our increased workload, it was evident we needed some help, albeit part-time at that stage. After examining our options, it was agreed that an apprenticeship offered most benefits, and so we opened up a role in business administration, to include elements of IT”.

“From what we saw, there seems to be a lack of teaching students about what to expect when joining the world of work,”

“For many, even the basics such as working to deadline, personal appearance and maintaining a good work ethos were sadly lacking. For those who showed more potential in these areas, they were unable to communicate effectively with other members of staff and customers or even use Outlook to arrange calendars and meetings.

“In our opinion, schools are failing to prepare these students adequately, and explain the benefits of apprenticeships.”

Perseverance paid off however, and four months later, Acuity hired Crystal Naudé, who had previously worked for her parents in their pub and had studied IT at college. The company organised for Crystal to attend a couple of their MS Office training courses and her assessor visited once each month, which meant that she was able to complete the majority of her coursework during office hours.

Crystal said: “The apprenticeship experience was invaluable. Throughout my time at Acuity, I managed to gain excellent day to day administration skills through software training and by practising my communication ability both over the telephone and face to face. Gaining these types of skills earlier in a learning environment however, would have proved very useful.”

Joseph Blass, CEO of WorkPlaceLive, a Croydon-based firm which is made up of one-fifth apprentices, also believes that training apprentices can be hard work - but its worth it: “Just because someone doesn’t have work experience doesn’t mean they won’t add value, as we have found out. An apprentice scheme gives businesses the opportunity not only to select the right people but also an opportunity to mould their attitude, which is priceless and much more difficult to do with someone who has been working for some time.

“We need to open our eyes and look at the potential we have in front of us; apprentices are those people who by definition have the drive and passion to enter in to something and succeed, and are likely to be great employees at those companies who provided them with the opportunity.

“Apprenticeship programmes take a lot of investment, commitment and dedication. We invested a lot of time upfront and worked with our existing staff to get their buy-in, which was essential because they are the apprentice’s life line and support mechanism.

“Most apprentices are new to the world of work so quite often the early days are spent teaching them basic work related skills. It takes time for them to adapt but by creating a strong support network you’ll be able to address their concerns and challenges early on.

“The reality is that setting up an apprenticeship scheme is time consuming but it is also very rewarding and can deliver a real return on investment. There are great resources available on the web, and a lot of recent industry expertise to guide you, so it needn’t be difficult.”

All in all, apprenticeships can be greatly beneficial for young people, offering opportunities that were previously only available to graduates and academically-minded individuals. However, businesses must remember that taking on an apprenticeship means taking responsibility for training a young person and often that can take time and cost money.

What do you think about apprenticeship schemes? Have we found a solution to our youth employment problem?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .