The government has announced plans to tackle the shortage of available skilled labour in the UK by almost doubling the number of apprenticeships available. Tom Whitney explains how bringing in an apprentice could help your business.

Finding recruits with the right skills for the job can be difficult. Taking on under-skilled staff and training them up may provide a better option for your business, but can be time-consuming and expensive. Creating an apprenticeship will enable you to develop a potential employee while accessing administrative support, financial help and – vitally – structured training.

“Apprenticeships are designed by businesses, so the training is always relevant,” says Stephen Gardner, director of work-based learning at the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). “Apprentices are productive workers because they understand your business as a result of their on-the-job training. They also tend to stay with the firm afterwards.”
 
How an apprenticeship works

“Apprentices learn through a combination of on-the-job training alongside your staff, and external training with a local training provider,” Gardner explains. “They can bring fresh ideas and innovation into the business, which can be very helpful as small firms can’t always keep up to date with the way things are changing.”

There are currently 240,000 apprentices in the UK, and the government plans to increase this to around half a million by 2020. As a first step, it has pledged to provide 90,000 more apprenticeships to 16 to 18-year-olds by 2013.

Currently there are 180 apprenticeship courses available, from business administration to computer game testing, and two levels of apprenticeship: standard apprenticeships last a year and lead to a level 2 National Vocational Qualification (NVQ); advanced apprenticeships last two years and lead to a level 3 NVQ.

An employer’s responsibility includes organising the training, supervising the apprentice at work, paying them a wage and giving them time off to study (usually one day a week). Although the popular image of apprentices is of school-leavers, apprenticeships are also available to over-18s – including existing staff.

“Local learning providers can help you recruit a suitable apprentice, while LSC advisers can provide support and suggest suitable training programmes,” advises Gardner.

Affordability

“The LSC pays the full cost of training for 16-18 year olds, which can range from £4,000 to as much as £16,000 per employee,” he explains. “We also cover half of the cost of training for apprentices aged over 18.
 
“Employers are obliged to pay the apprentice a minimum of £80 per week,” Gardner continues. “But grants are also available from the LSC to support businesses with the costs of apprenticeships.”

Future initiatives include a National Apprenticeship Service to develop the apprenticeship programme, and a wage-subsidy scheme for smaller businesses. An online vacancy matching service will be available later in 2008, where employers can place their vacancies and search for suitable apprentices.

“Firms should make the most of the increasing support that’s available,” Gardner concludes. “Bringing in an apprentice can help them overcome the skills gap and find the skilled labour they need.”

• Visit the LSC’s apprenticeship website
• Download the full Government review of the apprenticeship system

CASE STUDY: HOW APPRENTICESHIPS HELP MY BUSINESS

WHO: Robert Sharples, training manager at Craig Hambling Ltd

WHAT: Lancashire-based building contractors and double finalist in the Learning and Skills Council’s Apprenticeship awards

THE ISSUE: Overcoming a shortage of skilled labour

THE SOLUTION:

We’ve been trading for 25 years, during which the company has expanded to employ 50 people and turn over £6.6 million per year. As early as the 1990s, we recognised a shortage of skilled labour within the construction industry and wanted to combat this problem by bringing new talent into the business and developing those people to take on senior positions.

We developed our own apprenticeship programme with our local training provider, Accrington & Rossendale College, which is widely regarded as one of the best construction colleges in the country. To run a successful scheme, you need a good training partner, and we were reliant on the college to advise us during the first year.

The college also suggested possible apprentices. They were students on their NVQ course who were looking for work placements. Now our apprenticeship programme has such a good reputation we don’t have to look for apprentices – they contact us. We have an average of two per year working for us.

New apprentices are placed on a three-year development programme, and given an appraisal every six months with regular pay reviews. They spend four days a week on site, shadowing their site managers and gaining on-the-job experience. One day a week is spent at college following a nationally recognised NVQ programme.

We’re supported by the Construction Industry Training Board, which pays us a training grant equivalent to about £2,000 per year per apprentice. On top of that we pay each apprentice a salary. But it’s affordable labour, and they are on a low salary until they are fully trained and we can get real value from them. We don’t guarantee them a job at the end of their training; most of the time we take them on, but we’re not obliged to if it doesn’t work out.

Our apprenticeship programme has been an enormous success – 90% of our apprentices have completed their NVQ studies and have taken up employment in the company. This has allowed us to develop a new generation of skilled employees, whose quality has enhanced the reputation of the company. The programme has also helped ensure we stay at the cutting edge of the industry as the latest techniques are brought back to work from college.”

LESSONS LEARNED:

At one point a few years ago, we had too many apprentices. You need to make sure you have the right proportion of apprentices to senior staff, otherwise you might find your existing employees are overstretched trying to provide training and keep up with their workload. Firms should start with just one apprentice to begin with and see how they get on.

• Find out more about Craig Hambling at www.hambling-construction.co.uk