Why Your Company Needs an Apprenticeship Intermediary (2024)
In today’s rapidly evolving job market, companies face the dual challenge of finding skilled talent and ensuring their workforce remains adept at new technologies and methodologies. An apprenticeship intermediary can be a pivotal solution to these challenges, offering a structured pathway to develop a skilled, loyal, and productive workforce tailored to the specific needs of a company.
How can you maintain a pipeline of qualified and skilled workers? How do you create a better work environment?
Here’s how an apprenticeship intermediary can help you accomplish these goals by acting as a bridge between companies and potential apprentices, handling the complexities of recruitment, training, and assessment processes.
What is An Apprenticeship Intermediary?
A successful apprenticeship program is the result of interested and qualified candidates being integrated into a well-organized program. Great benefits can be seen by both the apprentice as well as the mentor.
But these programs don’t start out of nowhere. And often, the company that is interested in hosting apprentices doesn’t know how to navigate the initial steps of setting up the program. This is where an apprenticeship intermediary comes in.
An apprenticeship intermediary is an expert in arranging and operating an apprenticeship program for a business. They work closely with businesses to identify skill gaps and design apprenticeship programs that align with the company’s strategic goals and industry standards. This partnership not only accelerates the development of a skilled labor pool but also mitigates the risk and administrative burden on companies, allowing them to focus on their core operations.
Everyone’s responsibilities need to be coordinated. The experience of the apprenticeship intermediary helps inform this as well as providing program administration. The program’s demand for apprentices needs to be monitored and managed especially in the case of small and medium-sized businesses. These employers often don’t possess the ability to manage these programs. Apprenticeship intermediaries provide support as well as instruction to ensure continued success.
Let’s look a little deeper into the benefits an apprenticeship intermediary can provide for employers.
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Creating a Program
These programs can be difficult to arrange. There are a lot of considerations that will take a long time to arrange if you are putting it together from scratch. These programs are often set up in conjunction with government labor agencies. Employers have the option to provide college credit to apprentices along with hourly pay. Apprenticeships can also be used to train future employees on the job.
These programs can be intricate and complicated. An apprenticeship intermediary will have previous experience putting these programs together. This gives them the knowledge needed to speed along the process of putting together the necessary infrastructure.
But the infrastructure isn’t the only difficult consideration for starting an apprenticeship program. Employers are going to need to find qualified candidates to fill the roles. An apprenticeship intermediary will have a pre-existing network from which applicants can be drawn.
These existing resources can put program creation on the fast-track and get your company the help it needs.
Technical Guidance
Initial setup will also take a lot of planning. Designing an apprenticeship program can include considerations such as how long the program lasts, possible partnerships with local governments and college institutions, applications for tax credits, and more.
These processes can be confusing. The assistance of an experienced apprenticeship intermediary can make all the difference between a successful program and one that is abandoned before it starts.
Administrative Assistance
The infrastructure is the support system which the rest of the program is built upon. Employees will need to be recruited and screened to ensure success throughout the program for both the employee and the employer. These employees will also need to be trained according to a unified curriculum.
An apprenticeship intermediary can take these time-consuming tasks off the hands of the employer. The business will need to continue operating efficiently. Adding a group of new processes to the mix could interfere with the overall productivity of the business. The goal is to streamline processes, not make them more difficult. The intermediary can take control of administrative tasks relating to the apprenticeship program so the business can continue to focus on its work.
Benefits of Apprenticeships
For Employers
Apprenticeships help employers develop specially-trained workers to integrate seamlessly with their workforce. Learning on the job helps the workers to have a full grasp of their tasks and perform them with great skill when the time comes. Apprenticeships often help increase employee retention, which reduces administrative costs for employers relating to hiring and training new employees. A systematic approach to training creates a unified workforce that approaches their daily duties in a unified manner.
For Workers
Practical training is crucial to an employee’s future with a company. They are going to be happier on the job if they have the proper knowledge to perform their tasks correctly. This knowledge will stay with them and give them more security in their position. The completion of an apprenticeship often leads workers to the beginning of a career which can have long-term and ongoing benefits.
Getting Started
Hamilton-Ryker helps industrial businesses to develop apprenticeship programs. These structured training programs provide the tools necessary to help employees learn while they work. Are you looking to increase employee retention at the same time as improving the quality of your new recruits?