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Taking On An Apprentice Anyone have exerience?
I am looking at taking on more people and was wondering if anyone had any employees on an apprenticeship scheme.
For those with apprentices’, Is it fairy straightforward or are you bogged down with paperwork etc.
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5 Replies
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We took on an apprentice, my advice is:
Make sure they are doing an apprentice relevant to the task they’re doing. We had one provider try and make a business admin course fit what we do. See if you can find a local college that does ‘pre-press’ apprenticeships, which in my opinion is far better suited to the design/print game than design which incorporates everything.
The first provider we had simply wanted a bum on a seat and get their funding, I don’t believe they ever advertised the position, and just offered it someone who was on their books for 6months.
We replaced that apprentice with another via the local college, doing the pre-press course, far better as they actually had an interest in the job, the college were far better organised, and for their visits didn’t take up much time.
The apprentice we had was excellent, however moved to a company nearer to where she lived, and who were paying a far better salary than we could offer.
Where ever you source staff you will end up dealing with issues, such lateness, lack of productivity, theft… and if I was to do it again I would be a lot firmer from the outset.
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Much like Dave above, it’s fraught with hassles and pitfalls for your first lucky-dip into the apprentice market.
If a placement from an employment agency / school leaver / university ‘gap year experience’ then it’s a mixture of dead keen but incompetent or lazy…except when they want to do stuff for themselves.
Like he said – you’ve got to be a bit hard and set the rules from the beginning, don’t tolerate lateness (morning or long lunches), disappearing off without saying anything….it’s business not a paid creche.
Weigh up the LOST time and money you’ll HAVE to devote to training and fixing mistakes they make. There were quite a few days where we lost more than the apprentice made by being there and having to rectify issues.
Oh, and reward a job well done…don’t be their ‘mate’ – you’re their boss or it’ll be a whole world of problems when they start taking liberties.
Loads of other things, pros and cons…tread carefully.
dave
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Totally agree with the comments about dealing with a local college as a lot of the schemes are all about getting funding and not about your business or the apprentice.
Not in this business but a previous we had 5 people wanting the post, we interviewed all 5 and then gave 3 of them a weeks trial for the position, the college were more than happy to do this and then when we selected 1 of the 3 they had 3 months probationary just like a normal employee.
Its a lot to deal with at the start but once its running should you pick the right person it shouldn’t be to much hassle so long as they stay as keen as they were during the trial.
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We’ve had two come through as apprentices and who have now progressed to being very valued sign makers. They have NVQ’s in Sign Making, are very keen, and its good to have some ‘young blood’ in the business.
Contact Walsall College who can make everything relatively easy from recruitment through to the coursework and assessments, although its Walsall they come out to you.
We have been very pleased with their service and will be taking on another apprentice in due course.
Yes it can be a little bit pot luck when selecting school leavers but that is true whether they are an apprentice or some other terms.
The other important thing is that they have a good sense of loyalty to the company and I think the whole apprenticeship scheme has helped create.
Cheers
Dave -
Not sure if I am reading the initial question wrong or that some replies are more directed at finding junior type staff than official apprenticeship courses?
Anyway, my take on this is you are asking about putting a junior through a proper apprenticeship which is monitored and a certificate is used at the end of it all etc etc.
We have several staff being put through this type of thing. it is relatively painless and not time consuming.
The member of staff is given tasks by an auditor. Every 4 weeks he comes back in to go over the tasks that are performed and uploaded to the staffs own personal apprenticeship account which are normally just photos and brief description to accompany each explaining what they have done.
the day the auditor comes in i make it at 8am and the staff involved start the hour earlier than normal to go over it. we of course pay for the extra hour they are in, but means that there is no disruption of my normal business 9 -to- 5.30 hours.
Do I think it’s a good thing, well yes i do as it gives the staff member a goal and an achievement at the end of it. It also, in its own way demands more commitment to their job which i think can only be a good thing for your business on the whole.
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