5 Benefits of Employing an Apprentice

1. Develop skills that are relevant to your organisation

One of the drawbacks (other than elevated cost) of the pre-qualified, experienced talent out there, is that since each business is unique, there’s no guarantee that their wealth of experience will align well with what you need. Indeed, the two could contradict.

Pre-educated and experienced talent come with a set of attitudes, approaches, and ways of working from their school or workplace which need to be un-learned to harmonise with your culture and objectives.

An apprenticeship isn’t delivered in stuffy university halls, nor businesses with outdated working culture. They are a forward-thinking collaboration between your business and a provider like QA, to create a truly bespoke, flexible and effective journey.

For apprentices, learning is oriented around business goals, not a one-size-fits all definition of the role. What’s more, it’s accelerated by the hands-on nature of the , allowing them to build confidence and deliver impact faster.

That’s why 86% of employers agree apprenticeships helped them gain relevant skills for their organisation.

2.Affordably build a skilled workforce with funded training

Talent can be like diamonds… the rarer the asset, the higher the price. You don’t need us to tell you that specialist tech talent has become unattainable for many businesses.

Let’s look at an in-demand role like Data Analyst; the average salary currently sits at close to £40k. The average Data Apprentice salary on the other hand, is in the region of £24k.

Bearing in mind the added value of knowledge, skills and qualification funded entirely by the government, this is actually a sweeter deal for both you and your apprentice.

Funded, we hear you ask? Let us introduce you to the apprenticeship levy.

The levy is a government initiative, automatically collecting payments in the amount of 0.5% of an organisations annual wage bill, which go into a fund that can only be used for apprenticeship training.

If you’re an organisation with an annual wage bill of more than £30million, you already have a levy fund waiting. If unused, that money goes right back to the treasury!

If you’re a smaller organisation, you have the option of levy transfer. This is when levy paying organisations pledge a portion of their unused funds to help businesses like yours nurture new talent – which boosts the UK tech industry, so everyone wins!

In short: The training is free, the salary is more affordable, and the talent is more readily available.

3. Inject diversity into your business

Not only is the raw potential of apprenticeship talent a far larger and more accessible pool compared to pre-qualified talent; it’s also more diverse.

Existing tech talent typically come from a higher education background, which is less accessible for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds or minority demographics.

By choosing apprenticeships instead of hiring expensive ready-made technicians, you’ll be creating opportunities for those who are otherwise blocked from accessing tech careers, and underrepresented in the industry.

is an impactful fulfilment of your CSR and diversity objectives. But that’s not all. It also represents numerous business advantages.

At a glance, here’s what you stand to gain by harnessing diverse apprenticeship talent:

• 15% better chance of outperforming your peers due to gender diversity, and 35% for ethnic diversity, McKinsey
• 30% improvement on team performance, Gartner
• Become more attractive to the 76% of candidates who look for diversity when choosing an employees, Glassdoor
• 70% better likelihood of capturing new markets, Harvard business review

4. Create a greater learning culture

There’s one thing we haven’t mentioned which deeply defines apprenticeship talent: they are motivated to learn and grow with your business.

That can’t be said for every employee. Many are resistant to training, which poses a growing problem with so many new skills (including those in brand new technologies) becoming more crucial by the day, and the poor influx of new talent unable to fill the gaps.

Enter; apprenticeships… and your new culture of ‘lifelong learning’.

New talent focused on building futureproof skills can inspire others to do the same, based on evidence of the business-impact that these cutting-edge skills deliver and the security and progression that follows.

What better motivation that an entirely free, recognised qualification and the security of holding digital skills which will set them in good stead for the future, through dramatic industry change?

Apprenticeships open up a world of potential for upskilling, reskilling, or even transferring employees to new verticals, maximising their talents in line with digital transformation priorities, and preventing redundancies at the same time.

5. Help to close the digital skills gap

The digital skills gap is a challenge faced by businesses across the UK tech industry, and widespread shortages are holding back progress.

Taking on tech apprenticeships can help organisations to close this gap, by training new talent in the skills your business needs most. 

How do Apprenticeships make a difference?

Each time you hire a ready-made, qualified and skilled candidate, you pay over the odds, and shrink the available talent pool by one. This contributes to two challenges:

1. Unaffordable talent, pricing many organisations out of the tech talent market, stunting innovation and economy growth
2. A stagnant and shrinking market, where existing talent is in demand, but new talent is not coming in fast enough to replenish

However, each time you hire an apprentice, you are creating fresh talent.

You can transform eager candidates with the aptitude to succeed into fully qualified and actively employed talent. This not only sets your business up for success, but begins to turn the tide on a broken system.

What about existing employees?

Due to the revolutions in AI, Data and more, 85% of the jobs we will be doing in 2030 don’t yet exist and almost half will require digital tech skills.

The current employed workforce doesn’t reflect these skills, but fortunately, Apprenticeships are perfect for both upskilling and reskilling.

To keep the tech industry strong, your business digitally thriving and your people employed, the time is now to inject futureproof skills like through workplace apprenticeships.

Interested in recruiting an apprentice? Get in touch with our team today.