Taking on an apprentice when you cannot recruit experience

7 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 12 hours ago

Introduction

A business cannot find experienced staff. It has advertised three times, the applications are unsuitable, and the owner concludes that nobody wants to work in the trade any more. The obvious alternative is to train somebody, and it is dismissed because it sounds slow and complicated.

Apprenticeships are supported in most countries, frequently funded in part, and are the mechanism by which businesses in skill-short sectors have always solved this. They are also a real commitment that fails when it is entered into casually, so the decision deserves more than a shortage-driven impulse.

1. Taking on an apprentice is a training commitment, not cheap labour

Set the expectation correctly.

An apprentice produces less than they cost for a period, and requires supervision from your most experienced people. Businesses that take one on expecting immediate output are disappointed and the apprentice usually leaves.

2. Find out what support is available

The part most owners never check.

Funding, wage subsidies, training provider arrangements and administrative support vary considerably by country and by sector, and they can change the economics substantially. This is a phone call to a local provider or trade body rather than a research project.

3. Understand the obligations that come with it

Different from an ordinary employee.

Minimum wage rates for apprentices, required training hours, the role of a training provider, and the formal agreement itself. These are prescribed in most jurisdictions and the arrangement is not valid without them.

4. Decide who will actually train them

The commitment that gets underestimated.

Somebody experienced has to explain, supervise, check and correct, and that time comes out of their own output. Naming that person, and allowing for the time, is the difference between an apprentice who progresses and one who is left to watch.

5. Plan the first six months

Structure beats improvisation.

What they should be able to do at each stage, what they will be exposed to, and how progress is reviewed. Apprentices who spend months on the same simple task conclude they are being used rather than trained.

6. Work with the training provider properly

They are part of the arrangement.

Off-the-job training has to happen and is frequently resented as lost time. Building it into the schedule from the start, rather than treating it as an interruption, is what makes the qualification achievable.

7. Expect the first year to cost you

Model it honestly.

Reduced supervisor output, lower productivity, training time and the risk that it does not work. Businesses that budget for this manage it; those who expected a net gain in month three abandon the whole idea.

8. Treat them as a member of the team

The main determinant of whether they stay.

Included in the work, given real responsibility as they earn it, and spoken to like a colleague. Apprentices who feel like an inconvenience leave, and the investment goes with them.

9. Think about what happens at the end

The return on the whole exercise.

A qualified person who knows your business, your customers and your methods is worth considerably more than a recruit. Planning the role and the pay for after qualification, and discussing it in advance, is how you keep them.

Talk to another business in your sector that has done it. The practical detail — which provider, which qualification, what the first months are actually like — is far more useful than any general description, and most owners who have taken apprentices are willing to explain it.

Conclusion

Approach it as a training commitment that pays back over years rather than as a way to fill a gap cheaply.

Investigate what funding and support are available where you are, understand the specific obligations including wage rates and training hours, name the person who will do the training and protect their time, plan a structured first six months, work with the provider rather than resenting the off-the-job time, budget for a first year that costs you, include the apprentice properly in the team, plan the role after qualification, and talk to another business that has done it.