Why Apprenticeships Are Vital for Our Future Success

For any business to grow and prosper it needs the right people. This means having individuals with the right skills, who are happy in the company culture and understand what is expected of them.

Apprenticeships offer enormous advantages when it comes to attracting and growing the right kind of people. There are multiple routes into the industry and the learning is completely relevant to their future career. Apprenticeships also allow us to grow our own talent so that recruits can learn our ways of working and our values as they develop their technical skills.

The Recruitment Challenge

According to the Chartered Institute of Building the industry will need to find 157,000 new recruits by 2021 to keep up with demand. Recruitment is arguably the biggest challenge we face as a sector and apprenticeships have to be one of the main tools we use to meet that challenge.

We know that there is more work needed to build apprenticeships that fully work for the industry and for all recruits. But that work is continuing, and we are already witnessing significant benefits that apprentices bring to our business.

Apprentices bring enthusiasm, energy and fresh ideas to any organisation, contributing to its development and success. They also encourage a more diverse range of people into construction from a young age.

A Period of Change

Since the apprenticeship levy and other reforms were introduced last year, there has been a period of significant change for employers. Yes, there will continue to be challenges as employers adjust and respond. But employers are part of the change process, with enormous influence over how apprenticeships are shaped at both the policy and individual programme level.

We have to put quality at the heart of the programme for apprentices, and control in the hands of employers. Feedback shows that employers are positive about the reforms. Many are taking their time to plan high-quality, well thought through apprenticeship provisions that meets their specific needs.

A Positive Impact

Many construction employers of all sizes have already made apprenticeships central to their strategic plans to recruit the skills they need in the future. These businesses are experiencing overwhelmingly positive results:

• 78% state that productivity has improved from taking on an apprentice,
• 86% say apprenticeships developed skills relevant to their organisation.

Apprenticeships improve employee satisfaction, reduce staff turnover and save on recruitment costs. One engineering employer reported a 100% reduction in recruitment agency fees at technician level after they embedded their apprenticeship programme.

We are on a journey and now is the time for construction employers to embrace the apprenticeship opportunity. We must engage with training providers to develop first-class training programmes that are highly relevant to the skills needs we face.