Riding the Apprentice Wave

It’s Tuesday and I’m in a reflective mood, I attended an event recently about school leaver talent and the changing landscape of apprentice recruitment.  

We are working with National Grid so I am really interested on learning about new opportunities and challenges faced.

With so much buzz around apprenticeships at the moment, are companies just jumping on the bandwagon or do they see the students as a valuable asset to their firms?

On the other side of things, are apprenticeships really a good option for students? Or are we just baffling them with yet another option when they are already confused about making the decision about what to do when they leave school?  

What were you thinking about when you were 16 years old, I was too busy planning my social life, rather than thinking about a career?  What pressure do they get from their parents, schools and peers?  

Students are being scared by the media reporting increased university fees and increased youth unemployment, all at a time when they sit exams and under enough pressure.

In my view companies should see these students as a diverse and broad talent base.  They can be seen as a productive, often very motivated and mouldable resource.  In the short term they can be seen as having great potential and good apprenticeship schemes can build the skills that they require such as confidence, communication, collaboration and commercial acumen to be effective employees.

Do you have a good apprenticeship scheme or are you looking at implementing one?  If so, it should be structured, entail good training and development and engage these students.  This way it will be a two way partnership between you and the students so you will get out of it what you put in the long term!

  

Some interesting facts:

• 1.02 million young people (aged 16-24 years old) are unemployed

• Over 100,000 employers offering apprenticeships

• Applications for apprenticeships are up 53% from 2011

National Grid opened their school leaver and apprenticeship vacancies recently so I can’t wait to start talking to those students about what their thoughts are!