Getting started with an apprentice

If you’re interested in getting an apprentice for your business, read below for People Puzzles quick guide on ‘How to get yourself started with getting an apprentice’.

Find a training provider

In order to take on an apprentice, you’ll need to find training provider, which will take care of the training and qualification aspect of the apprenticeship. The government’s National Apprenticeship Service can help you find suitable training providers near you.

If you want to hire an apprentice

Once you’ve identified a suitable course, you’ll need to find your candidate, and help may be available from your training provider. Dudley College, for example, has a free apprenticeship recruitment service that advertises vacancies, screens applicants, arranges interviews and, after a candidate is selected, enrolls them on the apprenticeship on their first day of work.

‘We run open events, use jobs boards and as well as the National Apprentice Service (NAS) website,’ says Nick Thompson of Dudley College. ‘Any good training provider would help recruit an apprentice but I always encourage businesses to advertise it themselves as it’s a good news story for your business and sends the message that you are investing for the future.’

If you want to train up an existing team member

Apprenticeships can also be used to upskill existing staff. If, for example, you have a supervisor you’d like to train up, in a warehouse, office or shop floor, you could put them on a Level 3 Management training programme and fund it with an apprenticeship.

In both cases, Nick encourages employers to contact a training provider first and foremost. ‘When we get phone calls from employers who come to us with a learner in mind, we enroll them and sort out the funding,’ he says, ‘The employer’s responsibility after that is to provide a mentor and to give the apprentice time and space to do their learning. We need evidence that the 20% on-the-job learning is happening – otherwise it’s not an apprenticeship.’

The Apprenticeship Guide lists what apprenticeships are available in your sector.

Paying for training

If you pay the apprenticeship levy, you’ll already have a digital account with funds in it to pay for the training.

If you don’t pay the apprenticeship levy you won’t have this digital account and the training cost is co-funded (usually 10% by you and 90% by the government).

A guide to funding an apprenticeship is available on gov.uk.