So you think you might want an apprentice?

Even if you know very little about apprenticeships, the thought of having an extra person in your business, whom you can train up to help you, without costing very much, is appealing. But how do you find one, what are the implications, how much will it cost, and what will it actually look like in practice?

Perhaps the very first thing to do is to think about what you want to achieve with your apprentice, and the outcome after the apprentice has finished. Are you looking for a school-leaver with GCSEs, or A-levels, someone with a degree, or a more mature person looking to change career? What do you need that person to do, to support you? What skills will you need them to have to begin with and what can be taught along the way? Will you have employment for them once they’ve finished their training, or will you take on another apprentice? Do you have a staff shortage for just a few months that you need to fill, or is this a longer-term need in your business?

Once you have the answers to these questions, consider the amount of time you have available to put into the apprentice’s journey. All apprenticeship schemes now require 20% training time, so you’ll need to decide whether there is an appropriate course offered by a training provider, or whether you will do all of that training yourself.

There’s also the Government’s Kickstart scheme, which you could consider – we’ll be looking at that in more detail later, as part of this series of posts.