As the list of Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers on pages 6 and 7 of this supplement highlights, firms of all sizes are finding ways to establish successful on-the-job training. And, like any business strategy, there must be sound commercial benefits for doing so.
So what makes for a good apprenticeship? Four of the top 100 award-winning firms, one each from the small, medium, large and macro categories, explain why having effective apprenticeships in place has paid off for their businesses – and how they got it right.
Small-sized employer of the year, London
TEC International
When James Harding, managing director of the energy recruitment firm TEC International, was having difficulty filling senior positions, he decided to "grow his own" and hire apprentices.
"There's a million unemployed young people out there," he says. "Ours is an IT-based, networking industry – something that the Facebook generation are very comfortable with. We realised that the needs of our role suited that demographic. It all added up."
TEC International's first seven apprentices, hired this time last year, have proved so valuable the company is about to take on several more, in two new offices in Stirling and Manchester, as well as in the central London office. And the process is surprising simple, says Harding, who provides his apprentices with on-the-job training and classroom-based learning – delivered by an external training company.
The apprentices add value by learning through jobs that would previously have been done by more senior people, he explains. "Recruitment is in many ways a process-based function. We maintain a very large database of candidates and are always networking for new candidates from various places around the world. You can break that down into a relatively simple series of tasks. From doing those tasks, an apprentice will learn the networking and candidate-interviewing skills that are important in our business. In doing so, they become productive at the same time."
But everyone needs to pull their weight in a smaller business, and Harding points out that apprentices at TEC International – which currently has around 24 employees – are very much earning their keep. He estimates that they have delivered a return of around 200%. "In recruitment, you can directly attribute each fee to each person, so it's easy to track," he says. "So they've made me nearly double what they've cost me so far."
And there are other benefits. Because the average age of employees is now lower – the company's youngest apprentice is just 16 – there is a more sociable culture, says Harding.
There are also more opportunities for staff to develop their skills. Harding explains: "I have a guy who's been here for a few years who now manages a team of four. His career is based on his skills as a manager as well as his skills as a recruitment consultant. So there's a real spin-off benefit – a greater career opportunity for existing staff."
Medium-sized employer of the year, south east
Spicerhaart
"We love talent in this business and apprenticeships bring so much of it … they're our stars of the future," says Bobbi Dale, group contact centre manager at the estate agent Spicerhaart. "One of our apprentices came to us straight out of school with no qualifications and no self-belief. She's now one of our high flyers, a top performer."
When Dale joined the firm, four and a half years ago, there were just two apprentices. Now, Spicerhaart, which is based in Colchester, Essex, and has around 250 employees, has 40 apprentices in various roles including customer service, administration, sales negotiation and team leadership. Around 23% of employees have been through some form of apprenticeship.
For Dale, the advantages are obvious. Attrition rates are lower: the company's retention rate for apprenticeships over the past 20 months is 96%, which keeps recruitment costs low. And because apprentices join young and rise up through the ranks, they understand the firm's core values.
It's also a rewarding process for managers, says Dale, who believes that one of the best things about hiring apprentices is watching them grow.
"It's about helping them with everything – not just the skills to do their job but how they communicate, how they behave, even how they look – the whole package. It's developing that professionalism from day one. Some of them are younger and haven't got any life experience, and it's brilliant to see them come through and progress. Some of them have worked before but not in this kind of role. They can be quite nervous and not know what to expect. So they develop life skills and also an understanding of the value of what they're doing and the desire to deliver a fantastic service."
While some former apprentices are now rising through the ranks, Dale points out that success comes in many different guises. "Some people are happy staying with their first job – they enjoy it and they love what they are doing. But others do want to progress and have a long-term career. Several of our apprentices are now running their own departments and managing teams. Then they become role models and promote apprenticeships to new people joining the business. So the apprenticeships really breed their own talent."
Large-sized employer of the year, north west
Plumbs Ltd
Apprentices not only breathe new life into a company, they also help keep traditional skills alive, says Alan Taylor, HR manager of Plumbs Ltd, which produces quality made-to-measure loose furniture covers, curtains and reupholstery.
"As a British-owned company, we are doing very well," Taylor says. "So we want to ensure that we don't lose this skill base. It takes many years to become a fully fledged, experienced upholsterer. That's why we need to bring in young people to learn. It's tough out there and we're very much into giving them opportunities."
Plumbs Ltd currently has 350 employees and seven apprentices, training to be upholsterers, cutters and sewers, and administrators. Based in Preston, Lancashire, for more than 50 years, the company has a long history of apprenticeships and many of its long-term employees trained with the firm.
These more established employees are only too happy to pass on their skills, as well as some of the more basic tasks, to new recruits, says Taylor. "Before our apprentices came in, our upholsterers had to cover a whole range of skills within their production process. Now, our upholsterers can let the young people get on with things like stripping a three-piece suite – which must be done carefully and correctly before the upholsterer starts to rebuild it – and they can get on with what they are trained to do. So for us, the bottom line is that we've got rid of our backlogs and we're not paying experienced, trained upholsterers to do tasks that young apprentices can do as part of their learning process."
Although Plumbs recruits its apprentices through the NAS online apprenticeship vacancies system, employees are encouraged to let their own families and friends know about apprenticeship vacancies. The firm takes pride in its low staff turnover and has deep roots within the community.
"We like to train our own people and keep them continually developing, and the return is that we keep people," says Taylor. "That is cost-effective as we're not continually having to recruit. And experienced upholsterers are not easy to find, so it's nice to have this flow of talent coming through the business. That's what keeps us sustainable."
Macro-sized employer of the year, south-west
Serco UK & Europe
For Lesley Watson, UK apprenticeship manager at international service company Serco, apprenticeships represent a sound return on investment. "I don't think of apprentices as a burden, or as an overhead," she says, pointing to the example of aeronautical engineer apprentices, who generally start on a salary of £10,000, rising to more than £14,000 at the end of the three-year training programme. "If we brought in a fully trained aircraft technician, you are talking £20,000-plus," she says.
And the benefits go far beyond salary savings. While each apprenticeship programme is different, Watson estimates aeronautical engineer apprentices deliver around 45% productivity in their first year of training, rising to 75% in year two and to 100% in their third year. In Serco's contact centres, which manage a range of customer-related services, apprentices are 100% productive after around 12 weeks – exactly the same as someone who has already been trained.
"We are opening up more and more roles to apprentices," says Lesley. "If you do it right and get a good set of candidates, you see change. You see people get opportunities. You really see a difference in them – it's quite amazing. Because we are such a big company and hold so many contracts, our jobs are very varied. Our recruitment team is now looking at roles as they become available and considering if each role could be done by an apprentice."
With more than 38,000 employees in the UK alone, Serco works across a range of sectors, including transport and defence, and, in addition to its contact centres, currently has more than 2,000 apprentices in IT, engineering, administration, management, facilities management, building and bike maintenance.
According to Watson, employing apprentices – even those who are not yet 100% productive – has a positive effect on the rest of the workforce, whose productivity and standards tend to improve as they show apprentices what to do.
Apprenticeships also have a critical role to play in Serco's succession planning, she says. "People are starting to see that apprentices are not just toolbox carriers. They've got real potential. For example, in our defence business, we know that 48% of our employees are over 50. If people choose to leave, how long will it take to get somebody trained up so that our customer wouldn't see a difference? That's why they [apprentices] are part of our succession planning, all the way through, up to our leadership team."
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