7th – 13th February is National Apprentice Week, have you ever considered the opportunities for your company. As well as that lovely warm feeling you can get from the knowledge that you are helping people get into a specific role or help their ambitions to potentially change roles to a career that appeals to them. Apprentices should never be seen as “cheap labour” but it does give you an opportunity to mould a new member of staff into the way you like a task to be undertaken rather than having to iron out some perhaps less than ideal methods they have come across in other workplaces.
So, how can it help you company?
Let’s look at this from a different angle, when you were younger what skills did you learn from spending time with your parents or grandparents? That thought process you can apply to your company, either directly or indirectly. One of the risks that you always need to mitigate against with your company especially if you work in an industry that involves artisanal skills. The number of people who can do these skills are sadly reducing so any opportunity that those skills can be passed down should be taken.
This does not of course necessarily mean that it is the apprentice who is learning those skills, but it might. It could mean when you look at your appraisal and training reports that bringing an apprentice in can free up time for people within the company meaning that someone else has the time to learn a new skill or technique. Teaching someone the knowledge you have acquired, can also empower the experienced staff member – even take them back to a time when they were the one that was being taught.
How can your company help the apprentice?
The change of mindset from school, college or university to a working environment can be a culture shock. If nothing else, it is not like changing years or even going up to the next level of education where everyone is trying to build up friends around them – there is just the apprentice. Helping someone make this transition can be very rewarding.
There are perhaps two ways you could look at achieving this in a measured way. One is to use a more experienced person as a buddy, very vital so that they always have some to go to with a work issue, and it is also very good in character building for the person who is the buddy. You can see how they work with a less experienced member of staff before you try them with say a section-leader role. But also have a look at their hobbies and interests, see if there is any synergy with anyone else on the team and you can use them to welcome the apprentice on a non-work basis.
As well as the introducing the apprentice to all parts of the company, as you would with any new starter you also need to go through with them that training programme that they will undertake through the apprenticeship programme and their college training that they will be released for to enhance what they can learn during their time with you.
Taking on an apprentice can result in HR changes with a different style of contract, alterations to your training plans, maybe even looking at promotions and role-changes for other people within the company. Because of this, if there are any aspects you are unsure of, or would like some advice on why not contact us for a chat?
