6 reasons local businesses should consider taking on an apprentice

Apprenticeships are fantastic ways for businesses to help young people find their career path while adding tangible value to the workforce.

A study by the UK Commission on Employment has revealed that 75% of employers believe apprenticeship schemes have reduced their recruitment costs, too.

Clearly, there’s a lot to like, but if you’re scratching your head as to why local businesses should take on apprenticeships, we’ve got six reasons it could be one of the best decisions you make.

1. Inject some energy

We’re not suggesting your business lacks energy or enthusiasm, but a great way to inject more of those vital business ingredients is to hire an apprentice.

Given that they won’t have been either tainted or influenced by many years within your industry, they’ll enter your business with a fresh outlook that will offer real dynamism to your business. It might be contagious, too!

2. Increase productivity

There’s no getting away from the fact that an apprentice is another pair of hands. Utilise their burgeoning skills correctly (and that means putting them to work on real, valuable and measurable tasks), and you should inevitably find that overall productivity increases.

3. Gain funding from the government

There are plenty of fantastic government-backed funding schemes for apprenticeships.

The apprenticeship levy is funded by businesses that have wage bills of over £3 million, therefore there’s lots of funding to be had to support your apprenticeship programme.

4. Free up staff time

There are doubtless tasks within your business that would be best undertaken by someone learning their craft.

If you can identify the tasks that are taking up more time than is strictly necessary of highly skilled workers, you’ll quickly build a portfolio of work that will be of great interest to an apprentice. In return, you’ll be able to re-invest the staff time saved into higher level activity.

5. Meet business objectives

If it feels like you’re constantly chasing business objectives and never meeting them, an apprentice could help significantly.

For the reasons already outlined in this blog, they’ll help you free up valuable staff time, become more productive and inject the energy your business needs to meet those objectives.

The impact of an apprentice can be felt throughout the business, and will inspire you to break those objectives down into smaller, manageable chunks that can be more easily met.

6. It might turn into something more

Apprentices often stay on and become full-time, ‘regular’ employees. And what better reason to get one on board at your business?

You never know, you might inadvertently find a future manager or board member. The more an apprentice is immersed into your business, the more passionate they’ll become about it and more likely they’ll want to become a permanent, invaluable member of staff.

Wrapping up

Have we got you excited about apprenticeships? We hope so. They’re not an alternative to regular employment, but should certainly be seen as an invaluable accompaniment that will help your business achieve even greater success.