Can I put a member of my team through an apprenticeship?
We get asked this a lot, “are apprenticeships just for new hires”. The answer is a resounding NO! Apprenticeships include a large and diverse number of qualifications, starting from entry-level all the way up to degree level apprenticeships. We’ve put together this blog to inform you of how you can upskill your team using the apprenticeship programme.
Develop your team to improve retention.
One way you can use apprenticeships in these trying times, is to assist retention and avoid staff jumping ship. Train to retain is proven to be an extremely effective way to keep your top performers in your company. By giving them a genuine route of progression and a recognised qualification to work towards the very best of your team are likely to stay with you, rather than looking for a new workplace to continue their development. This can be achieved with apprenticeships like Team Leader level 3, Project management level 4 and Operations and Departmental Management level 5.
Fill a skills gap.
Apprenticeships can also be an amazing way to help you fill skill gaps within your business. Perhaps you have someone that is taken on the responsibility of running your social media but has minimal experience and no formal qualifications in marketing. Maybe you need to progress someone into a more technical role and need a structured way of getting them the knowledge they need without it totally disrupting their day to day work.
An apprenticeship is perfect for those within your company that are looking to take step into this new duties or accountabilities to give them formal training they need to excel in those new roles and reward them with formal qualifications. Perfect examples of these apprenticeships would be: Digital Marketing Level 3, IT network engineer Level 4.
One thing to keep in mind though is that the member of staff will need to be shadowing, learning or developing 20% of their working week. This is a huge benefit to the company and isn’t as intrusive as it may at first sound.
Why 2020 is the perfect time to retain your team.
With many of us working from home, this can be a perfect time for us to take an hour or two of our day to really develop our skills. For example, here at Professional Apprenticeships our tutors have fully adapted to online learning, with zoom classes and student portals for coursework. This allows your team to learn as it fits around their work, making use of the extra flexibility that working from home might allow.
Apprenticeships are also being backed as something really important for economic recovery by our Government. Offering grants for businesses that use apprenticeships, (depending on your circumstances).
How do I start?
Apprenticeships come in many shapes and sizes, so if you are interested in finding out how they could work for your business please get in touch with us at Professional Apprenticeships. We can help with a no-obligation discovery call to understand the qualifications and support available to you.
t: 0117 422 400
e: info@professionalapprenticeships.co.uk
Written by Ben Cridland
Digital Marketing Executive
