Apprenticeships need to be simple and accessible
If small businesses are unable to understand and access apprenticeship schemes there is something seriously wrong
It seems an absolute age ago but back in early March before the General Election I wrote a blog sharing my thoughts on apprenticeship schemes. I had hoped that that the future government would take apprenticeships seriously and make them accessible to SMEs. Several months on and it seems The Government has a completely different plan for apprenticeship schemes – or no real plan at all. Apprenticeships are certainly making the headlines with The Government announcing three million apprenticeships by 2020. On face value that is a fantastic development, but having secured the headlines the underlying story appears to be intentionally confusing, possibly to hide a complete lack of any substance.
I rarely read newspapers but just happened to pick up an Evening Standard on the way back from a meeting in the City on Wednesday. By chance I stumbled on an interesting article by Chris Blackhurst entitled ‘Sorry, but this apprentice hype isn’t up to the job’. I was very disappointed to read that The Governments plans are falling very short of my hopes.
“Is this an effective formula to enable UK PLC to compete on a world stage?”
The UK needs more engineers and technicians – people capable of supporting our businesses as well as advancing our research and development and manufacturing capabilities. With this in mind, I just did a quick scan on apprenticeships and found plenty in marketing and social media, retail work, child care, hair and beauty, business admin, horticulture and even a football coach apprenticeship. Is this an effective formula to enable UK PLC to compete on a world stage?
I would estimate only one in fifteen would qualify as an engineering or technical apprenticeship and these were with very large organisations. As Mr Blackhurst mentions in his article, many years ago school leavers had the option of worthwhile apprenticeships. To the point where some remained with their employer for their entire career. I have first-hand experience of this as some of my apprentice colleagues from the 1973 intake are coming up to retirement having remained in BT for over 40 years. I am one of the apprentices that went on to start my own business and become an employer myself. Over the 31 years we have been have been in business we have had several apprentices and some of those have gone on to start their own businesses.
“When I say ‘apprenticeship’ I mean that in the real sense rather than a thinly veiled disguise for low paid labour.”
Having read Chris Blackhurst’s article I can’t help feeling that as a nation we are missing a massive opportunity here. If we take away apprenticeships we are removing the tributary to so many future businesses and potential employers in the future. When I say ‘apprenticeship’ I mean that in the real sense rather than a thinly veiled disguise for low paid labour.
Our two apprentices are coming to the end of their college work and are due to complete their apprenticeships very soon. We now have two very valuable members of our team, one in engineering and the other in business development. We made a decision at the outset that we would put our sales apprentice through the same apprenticeship course as our engineering apprentice. This was a gamble but it has certainly paid off for us. The Institute of Telecommunications Professionals has now introduced an apprenticeship for sales people in our industry but at the time our apprentices started the engineering course was the only available apprenticeship course.
“If The Government are not going to take this seriously then small to medium businesses do have the option to take matters into their own hands…”
I suspect I am going to have a very long wait for apprenticeships to be taken seriously. This is very disappointing and very frustrating. Apprentices can bring real value to small to medium businesses and in turn they bring real value to our nation. If The Government are not going to take this seriously then small to medium businesses do have the option to take matters into their own hands and organise their own apprenticeship schemes. Before the ITP introduced their Telecommunications Apprenticeship that is what we did. Although not a formal apprenticeship, we put our own training programme together using industry training providers and our own internal training. One of our apprentices joined OpenReach as a technician and at least three went on to start their own businesses, others have stayed with us for the long term.
I appreciate that the thought of investing in an apprentice only to have them leave at some point in the future to join a competitor or start a business that could potentially be in competition with their former mentor. But, isn’t that just the way business works? We have without fail realised our return on investment from our apprentices. Our two apprentices have been excellent role models for their generation and ambassadors for our industry. What we have put in we have had back many times over. If you hadn’t guessed already, I thoroughly recommend introducing apprenticeship schemes to any small to medium business in technical and engineering industries.
Useful links…
The Evening Standard – Sorry but The Government’s apprentice hype isn’t up to the job