What Do You Stand to Gain From Offering Apprenticeships?

Apprenticeships are generally regarded as a positive program to help workers gain the experience and knowledge they need to be a hirable member of the workforce. Unlike internships, apprenticeships are paid and frequently include a track to being hired on full-time.

These programs allow workers to learn about the job while being paid for it. Oftentimes, these skills are highly specialized. Many jobs require experience as a prerequisite. But where can you get this experience in the first place? This is where apprenticeships come in.

However, apprenticeships provide benefits to both workers and employers. It’s easy to focus on how they help workers get their start, but the business can see positive results from apprenticeships, as well.

Specialized Workers

Your business requires certain skills. And beyond the skills required of the industry, your business has a certain way of performing your duties. This means the employees of your business need to be trained in a particular way. Apprenticeships offer the ability to not only show your new hires how things are done but to give them plenty of time to thoroughly understand it.

The length of an apprenticeship depends on both the sponsor and the job. The range can be anywhere from one year up to six years, however, the average apprenticeship lasts two years.

Contact Hamilton-Ryker to learn more about our workforce development solutions.

Employee Retention

Turnover is the scourge of any business. Frequently needing to hire and train new employees creates more strain on existing employees while also costing the business unproductive staffing hours. However, apprenticeships have been shown to have a positive effect on employee retention.

The US Department of Labor reports that “91% of apprentices that complete an apprenticeship are still employed nine months later.”

A business that shows its workers that it is willing to put time and money into their development is rewarded with loyalty. Employees like working for businesses that look out for them.

Renewable System of Workers

Maintaining a cycle of apprentices means a business will always have access to trained and reliable employees. This is an asset to businesses for many reasons. Apprenticeships provide a means of addressing an aging workforce, which is a concern for many industrial industries.

Skilled workers are difficult to find. Providing apprenticeships allows a company to create their own skilled labor pool which they can access to fill their employment gaps. And this cycle can be ongoing. This creates a constant pipeline of potential employees which means the business will never have to spend a lot of time looking to fill an open position.

Systematic Training

These specialized jobs often have a lot of moving parts. There is a lot to know and the methods of performing the tasks can vary between workers. This creates problems. It’s in the company’s best interest to have tasks done uniformly between all employees so adjustments don’t need to be made. Adjustments lead to wasted product and time lost.

Apprenticeships allow for new employees to experience the same training system. It also solidifies the training system itself. A workforce that performs its functions consistently provides great results for the business.

Saved Money

Apprentices require training. This means they aren’t performing at the same level of an experienced employee when they start their position. They quickly begin fulfilling duties and performing job tasks, but they require supervision and guidance. This is why apprentices are paid between 40 and 50 percent less than an employee that is fully trained.

This leads to big savings for the business. Apprentices will require more attention, but the money saved on their labor adds up quickly. The apprentice is gaining knowledge along with the money they are receiving, so they are not being exploited. Instead, the compensation is split between financial pay and knowledge of job skills.

Low-Risk Hiring

It takes a lot of work to hire a new employee. First, the company needs to create the job listing and post it on various job boards. Then the company conducts multiple interviews and second interviews. Job offers are made. Background checks and other employment eligibility verifications are performed. And then time and money are spent training the new hires.

And sometimes after all of that time and money, the employee doesn’t work out. This effectively wastes all of the time and money spent up to this point.

Apprenticeships take risks out of this process. The apprentice is filling a much smaller role than a full-time employee would, so it doesn’t hobble the business if they don’t work out. Likewise, the rates of retention make the possibility of a negative outcome much less likely.

Contact Hamilton-Ryker today to learn more about apprenticeships. as well as the grants and funding available to support this effort.