Enrolling Your Staff In Apprenticeships: All You Need To Know
As experienced apprenticeship providers in the healthcare, social care and business sectors, Dynamic Training break down the apprenticeship process for interested employers.
Boost Your Business With Apprentices
An apprenticeship is a real job with training. Individuals earn while they learn, gaining valuable skills, knowledge and behaviours in a specific job role. Businesses in all industry sectors in England can either recruit apprentices or utilise apprenticeships to upskill or retrain existing employees. Depending on the level and job role, apprenticeships can take from 12 months to 5 years.
Apprenticeships have evolved significantly with the introduction of industry led apprenticeship standards. Apprenticeships are designed by industry today to address the workforce needs of tomorrow. Thousands of organisations, both large and small, are realising the benefits of employing new apprentices and taking full advantage of apprenticeships to develop and upskill existing staff to grow their own talent.
Often, the talent you seek is already available within your existing workforce and you don’t always need to look outside of your organisation. Apprenticeships can be offered to your workforce to encourage them to up-skill or retrain, realising their full potential and ultimately boosting your business.
Who Are Apprenticeships For?
Apprenticeships can be applied for by individuals over the age of 16, living in England and not in full time education. Employers can offer apprenticeships to new entrants or use them to grow their own talent from among current employees.
How Do Apprenticeships Work?
Dynamic Training will work closely with you to ensure that the apprenticeship you offer is the most appropriate for the individual’s job role. The apprenticeship programme is work based with the support of an in-house mentor and a Dynamic Training Skills & Development Coach.<
Where Does Apprenticeship Training Take Place?
Most of the on-the-job training for an apprenticeship is undertaken at an employer’s premises, gaining job-specific skills in the workplace. Off-the-job training delivered by Dynamic Training is delivered online as part of planned workshops via Microsoft Teams.
The Key Benefits Of Enrolling Your Staff In Apprenticeships
- Employing apprentices leads to lower overall training and recruitment costs and makes good business sense.
- Apprentices can help grow your business and help solve recruitment challenges
- Apprentices are loyal to the organisations that invest in them, therefore improving staff retention rates.
- Employing apprentices helps develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce, improving service, morale and productivity.
- Mentoring and training apprentices, enables senior staff to pass on their knowledge and experience.
- Apprenticeship standards are more job role specific than any other type of learning, therefore more relevant to your business needs.
Employer Responsibilities During Apprenticeships
Employers are responsible for paying their apprentice’s salary and issuing their contract of employment. Apprentices must be inducted into their role and provided on-the-job training.
By employing an apprentice, employers have to meet the following requirements:
- An Apprenticeship Agreement between the employer and the apprentice must be in place
- A Commitment statement is to be completed by an employer, the apprentice and Dynamic Training
- An apprentice should be paid the correct rate of pay for their age. The current rate (April 2023) is £5.28 per hour for an apprentice aged 16 - 18 or for those 19 and over, in the first year of their apprenticeship. For apprentices aged 19 and over who have completed their first year, the National Minimum Wage for their age applies. However, as employers have to compete to attract an apprentice, many employers choose to pay more.
- The minimum duration of an apprenticeship (12 months) is based on an apprentice being employed for at least 30 hours per week. By exception, where the individual’s circumstances or the nature of employment in a given sector make this impossible, then an absolute minimum of 16 hours per week must be met. For apprentices working less than 30 hours a week, the duration of the apprenticeship must be extended to account for this.
- All apprentices must receive the same benefits and right as other employees.
Government Apprenticeship Incentives
Employers are not required to pay National Insurance Contributions for apprentices under the age of 25 on earnings below the higher tax rate of £43,000 a year.
If your organisation has less than 50 employees, it could be eligible for additional funding and support as the government will pay 100% of your training costs for employing an apprentice who is aged 16 to 18, or an apprentice aged 19 to 24 who is a care leaver or has an Education and Health Care Plan.
Currently all employers regardless of size, will receive £1,000 for taking on an apprentice who is aged 16 to 18 years old, is under 25 with an education, health and care plan or has been in the care of their local authority. £500 can be claimed at month 3 of the learners programme and £500 ca be claimed at month 12 of programme.
Need Help Recruiting Apprentices?
Dynamic Training can assist you with the advertising and recruitment of prospective apprentices for your business. We have substantial experience in finding the right candidates for the job. We offer three packages to assist you in your apprenticeship recruitment, bronze (free), silver and gold (which are additional in cost to the apprenticeship training).
Next Steps - Exploring Apprenticeships
Learn more about the apprenticeship process, what the requirements are and if an apprenticeship is right for you.
Dynamic Training has an expert team of trainers delivering high-quality apprenticeships across the health, social care and business sectors, making sure you get the best out of your workforce.
Dynamic Training cares deeply about creating an inclusive and accessible enviroment for our learners. We have a proud record of getting the best out of every learner and adjusting our training to suit them.
Learn more about how Dynamic Training has worked to make all of its training as inclusive as possible.
What is Off-The-Job Training in the Apprenticeship process? Lets explain how Apprentices balance their day-to-day activities, and the requirements which organisations have in regards to this.
Dynamic Training is an apprenticeship, adult education, and bespoke training specialist. We work with a diverse customer base across a variety of sectors, with a significant presence within the health and care sector. We have grown from strength to strength, organically, through business-to-business recommendations and the strength of our reputation for providing high quality learning and development solutions and delivery.