An apprenticeship offers a unique blend of work experience and academic study.
Discover how apprenticeships work, steps for deciding whether or not an apprenticeship is right for your organisation and how they can be used to develop existing staff.
Apprentices can bring new ideas, creativity and vibrance to all kinds of employers, both large and small. They are also the perfect way to enhance your succession planning as apprentices can progress through the ranks to become the managers and directors of the future.
With the right approach of careful planning and effective coaching and mentoring, apprenticeships can be tailored directly to the needs of your organisation. Many employers experience skills gaps and find it hard to recruit. Recruiting and training apprentices enables you to develop people in a way that promotes the specific skills required, therefore investing in the future of your people and organisation as a whole.
Apprenticeships can boost productivity and competitiveness. A research study carried out for the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found that, on average, each apprentice brings a gain in productivity of more than £10,000 per year for their employer, with figures for some sectors being even higher.
As well as boosting productivity, apprenticeships can also help companies to compete in the modern marketplace. In industry research, 77% of employers agreed that taking on apprentices helped to make their organisations more competitive. Another finding was that more than 8 out of 10 customers prefer to buy from companies which employ apprentices.
Each apprenticeship will be delivered differently dependent on the subject area and model of delivery agreed with yourself and the training provider. However, you should expect a blended model of delivery to include online learning, face to face one to one sessions and structured training either online, via one to one coaching or workshops at a provider’s centre or at your own, subject to the numbers of learners you have enrolled.
It’s also possible to offer apprenticeships to your existing staff as a way to help them upskill, progress into a new role (i.e. management) and boost their productivity as well as maximise their impact and improve retention.
Apprenticeships for existing staff can be tailored to the needs of your organisation and balance learning in the job with off the job learning which can be structured around the needs of the workplace. Programmes are flexible and depending on the employer, groups or individual staff can be enrolled on the same programme and various point in the year or on a roll-on roll-off basis.
The content of an apprenticeship varies hugely because they are specific to the sector and job roles they are aligned to. However, the structure of an apprenticeship is generally the same. The structure and content of the apprenticeship is called a Standard.
Apprenticeship Standards are written by employer-led groups and include the specific Knowledge Skills and Behaviours needed to become competent for a specific occupation.
The standards are short and concise. Each apprenticeship standard fits on 2 sides of A4 and consists of:
Knowledge is the theory behind the practical application of the occupation. Having knowledge of how to do something does not necessarily mean that the individual can do it, even if they understand the steps and what should happen.
Skills are the practical application of knowledge needed to successfully undertake the duties that make up the occupation. They have to be learnt through on and/or off-the-job training or experience
Behaviours are mindsets, attitudes or approaches required for competence, generally across the entire occupation.
Some, but not all apprenticeships require the apprentice to achieve an accredited qualification as part of their overall achievement of the apprenticeship for example a certificate, diploma or other certificated course
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