Investing In Young Talent

Many businesses continue to face recruitment difficulties, skills shortages and increasing competition for experienced employees. At the same time, thousands of young people are leaving school, college and university each year looking for opportunities to begin their careers.

For employers, this creates a valuable opportunity. Investing in young talent can help businesses build a sustainable workforce, develop future leaders and address long-term skills gaps.

Although recruitment may not always be at the top of the business agenda, bringing in apprentices, school leavers and graduates can provide fresh perspectives, enthusiasm and the opportunity to shape talent to meet the specific needs of your organisation.

Employing young people offers benefits far beyond simply filling vacancies.

Young employees often bring:

• A willingness to learn and develop new skills
• Fresh ideas and perspectives
• Strong digital literacy and adaptability
• Long-term career potential within your organisation
• The opportunity to build a loyal and engaged workforce

Many businesses find that employees who join early in their careers develop into some of their most valuable team members. By investing in training and development from the outset, employers can create a pipeline of talent that supports future growth.

Employing young talent doesn’t just provide you with incentives from the Government, but it’s invaluable for looking at the long-term future of your business.

Young people will be enthusiastic and raring to go, haven’t developed any bad business habits or had a glass ceiling set that ends up with them not reaching their full potential. And they’ll grow with your business. We still have trainees from when we first started our business with us today!

Below our HR Specialist, Donna, has detailed, compared and walked through the process of taking on apprenticeships and traineeships so you can see which would best suit your business needs.

What is an Apprenticeship?

• Apprenticeships tend to be longer than traineeships, lasting one to three years and specific to a certain skilled trade
• Tend to involve four days a week of work experience, with one day a week devoted to studying
• Normally offered on a full-time contract which is paid at the apprenticeship rate
• Apprentices will qualify with a specific qualification
• Opportunity to recruit the apprentice on a permanent contract once the initial contract has finished and qualification gained
• Support provided by the external training provider

The process of taking on an apprentice

The process of taking on an apprenticeship is potentially the most difficult part of the process, as you need to consider a few extra steps compared to the normal recruitment process if you have never taken on an apprentice before.

We have outlined some basic steps below that you need to follow when taking on your first apprentice:

1. Identify the role

It is important to identify where the apprentice will fit into your business from entry level to a more senior role that you want to develop.

An apprentice or trainee is someone learning how to do a specialised job through on the job training under the guidance of another experienced employee or a group of experienced employees, depending on your set up.

You will need to make sure that the experienced employees are prepared and are able to train the new apprentice as this individual will need to adhere to workplace procedures, systems as well as following health and safety guidance with the ability to update training records while completing tasks to gain a qualification.

If you have never recruited an apprentice before, you may find this tough and worry about keeping the apprentice busy especially within their first few weeks, but it will take time and as long as you have a plan for their development, and the employee mentoring the apprentice is accountable for their training, then you will succeed.

2. Be aware of the apprenticeship rules

In the early stage of the process you will need to keep in the mind the basic rules for employing an apprentice. New apprentices must be 16 years or older and will have all the rights of your existing employees, including their rate of pay. Which must be at least the National Minimum Wage for apprentices their age.

3. Identify the apprenticeship programme that fits into your business

There are hundreds of different apprenticeship standards for all industries that can be mapped to specific occupations. There will certainly be an apprenticeship programme that would benefit your business, it is a case of identifying the best one!

4. Finding the right training provider

Once you have an idea of which apprenticeship programme would benefit your business the most, the next stage would be to identify a training provider who can provide guidance for setting up your programme, provide support in understanding the funding options, and in some case provide guidance on the recruitment of your new apprentice.

5. Putting together an apprenticeship agreement

Following the recruitment of your apprentice with the support from your training provider, an apprenticeship agreement needs to be signed which is a legal requirement. The agreement is a contract of employment between yourself, the employer and the apprentice.

In addition, there should be an apprenticeship commitment statement which would be signed by the apprentice, training provider and yourself to make sure all parties are committed to fulfilling the apprenticeship programme.

If you are unsure what route to develop an apprentice in, then recruiting an individual on a traineeship may be the better option for you.

Other Routes for Developing Young Talent

Apprenticeships are not the only option available.

Businesses may also wish to consider:

• Graduate recruitment programmes
• Internship opportunities
• Industry placements
• Work experience programmes
• T Level industry placements
• School and college partnerships

These routes can help organisations engage with future talent and build relationships with potential employees before permanent recruitment takes place.