Apprenticeships have undergone a massive overhaul of the last few years, and the government is certainly the driving force in making them accessible to all businesses – both big and small.
Gone are the days of 19-year old, trade-based schemes. Apprenticeships have been transformed in a bid to drive a highly sought-after workforce; equipped with the skills to fill a talent gap within a business and contribute widely to its success.
In this article, we describe today’s modern apprentice and talk about seven facts that may actually surprise you about apprenticeships….read on!
1. Older people can be an apprentice
Apprentices can be any age. We are seeing a real increase in companies up-skilling their staff onto apprenticeship training. In fact, in 2017, 75% of apprenticeships (nationwide) were started by those aged 19 or over.
2. Courses for a wide range of industries
There is now an apprenticeship training course for almost industry. Our most popular courses are those which provide the skills to work in almost any industry, for example digital marketing, customer services and business administration – all of which give you transferrable skills to enter a wide range of sectors.
3. The most cost-effective training
With the government firmly behind its pledge to have 3 million apprentices by 2020, enrolling your staff on an apprenticeship course is the most cost-effective way to increase their learning and development. Large employers who pay the levy can use their levy funds to fully fund the course. If you’re a small business with a payroll of less than £3million, you can enter into a co-investment with the government where they will pay 95% of the cost of the training.
4. Learning on the job
With the growth of elearning, it has made the training delivery very flexible. Learners can do a lot of their training online, or via webinar, with other sessions being done on-the-job so your apprentice can apply their new-learnt skills directly to benefit your organisation.
5. Access to other free online courses
When your staff sign-up to any of our apprenticeship training programmes, they will be given access to over 500 online modules that will increase their business knowledge and skills. These are completely free.
6. Apprentices are in it for the long-haul
Apprentices are not just with your company for the training, if they’re properly managed, they will stay with the company and progress through the ranks. According to Government stats, 65% of apprentices stay working for the company that trained them when they complete their apprenticeship.
7. Apprenticeships give your business RELEVANT skills
Apprenticeships are a great and cost effective way to fill any skills gap within your organisation. 86% of employers said that apprentices helped to develop relevant skills for the organisation, and to fill the skills gap.
So contact us today and tell us what skills you need and we will tailor a training programme to suit your business.
