
Best in class apprentices want best in class apprentice schemes – so is your apprenticeship scheme as good as you think it is?
Greatness can be a hard thing to define. In a person we might think of charismatic leaders, athletes at the peak of their career or even YouTube vloggers. It’s all about the framing, but essentially it means being at the top of your game; leading and forging the way.
With so much uncertainty due to Covid-19, many leaders have parked aspirations of greatness and focussed instead on survival. This is a path to average at best, stagnation at worst. In a world where the future of work is unfolding as we speak, aiming to stand still is tantamount to accepting decline.
Having a great apprentice scheme is one of the best ways to get your organisation future ready, now. When you support your apprentices holistically with a truly great scheme, your bottom line will see the benefit and so will your community.
We’ll share some of the questions that have come up time and again when we worked with the Department for Education, National Apprenticeship Service and many many others on our new We invest in apprentices framework.
Could you describe in a tweet how your apprenticeship scheme fits in to your organisation’s vision and purpose? If the answer is no, our research demonstrates that you might not be getting the best ‘bang for your buck’ from your scheme.
A great apprenticeship strategy isn’t siloed; it’s a key component of driving a pipeline of ambitious, highly skilled and loyal talent into the heart of your organisation. Done well, this safeguards and enables the current and future ambitions of a business in a way that direct hiring cannot.
Commitment will drive how enticing your scheme is to potential applicants. You might rate yourselves as a ten, but can you be sure you’re seeing the true picture? Here are some simple prompts to get you thinking:
What data do you collect? Whether it’s tracking applications through different channels, or volumes year to year, measurement gives you benchmarks to work on!
Now we come to the crux of it; how can you guarantee your scheme means your apprentices are truly bringing their ‘A- game’ to the business every day, now and for years to come? Investors in People has over thirty years of experience in supporting businesses to create environments where true potential is realised, and one of the lessons we’ve learned is that it can be very challenging for leaders to get a true insight into this on their own – we all need help identifying our blind spots.
So what are the hidden opportunities that would drive your apprentices to be the very best they can be?
Our research has indicated that these areas release hidden potential:
We’ve all been there. 3PM on a Sunday and the queasy Monday blues kick in… But to build a truly great apprenticeship scheme, banishing the Monday blues and emphasising the wellbeing of your apprentices in your strategy should be a priority. People who feel their best, bring their best. It’s a perfect example of a workplace win-win.
So to ensure you’re really looking after your apprentices, consider these practices we’ve seen in our community:
If you’ve read this and mentally done a tick, tick, tick! Thank you – you and your business are one of many that make work better for people and our society more broadly.
Investing in your people, and specifically apprentices, will help you achieve your strategy, fill those pesky skills gaps, and create loyal advocates for your company many years into the future.
But now you need to prove it; to yourselves and the world. Come and talk to us about We invest in apprentices accreditation – the external verification for your apprenticeship scheme to really give it the seal of approval.
Together we can make the future of work, better.
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