How can I benefit from hiring an apprentice?
As an employer, hiring an apprentice needn’t feel like a lot of effort – in fact, the process can be highly rewarding.
Apprenticeships, and particularly electrotechnical apprenticeships, can be as useful to employers as they are to the apprentices themselves. Research has shown time and again that an overall net-positive can be achieved when bringing an apprentice into your business1, and this is thanks to a number of benefits they can bring you.
Paul Collins, Technical Director at NICEIC, said: “Apprentices have been proven to be an effective investment for businesses, offering the opportunity for growth potential while also skilling a future employee for a business’s exact requirements.
“Taking part in an electrical apprenticeship programme is something every employer should think twice about before passing up on.”
Get a worker trained in modern technologies
Employers often discover that apprentices have knowledge in areas that other long-term employees may not, and this is because they are being trained according to the most up-to-date electrotechnical standards. Additionally, apprentices might have elected to train in areas such as solar PV, heat pumps or other green or emerging technologies, giving them a formalised education in topics that existing employees might not have had the chance to study.
Make an overall yearly gain
A study by the St Martin’s Group in 2021 looked into whether there was an overall yearly financial gain for employers that took on apprentices. What it discovered was that apprentice outputs usually do surpass their associated costs (including wages) and deliver a net benefit to employers during their training.
This gain has been estimated at £2,500 on the lower end and up to £18,000 on the higher.
These numbers will continue to grow, too, provided the apprentice is taken on as a full-time employee following the completion of their (in this case) electrical apprenticeship.
Mould an apprentice into a potential long-term employee
During an apprenticeship, your employee won’t only learn practical skills, but also the interpersonal and soft skills they need to interact well with colleagues and customers. By introducing your company culture to an apprentice early on, you are shaping their ability to work well as a member of your workforce. Not only that, but many of the skills that they employ in their day-to-day jobs will be conducted to the standards that you teach them. Ultimately, this means that apprentices grow into the kind of workers that fundamentally match your business’s unique needs.
Benefit from government funding
Of course, one of the most valuable parts of an apprenticeship is the fact that, so long as your yearly pay bill is under £3,000,000, 95% to 100% of your apprentice’s training costs will be subsidised by the UK government. Even if your pay bill is over this threshold, you will still receive funding for the vast majority of the training costs associated with taking on an apprentice.
The bigger picture for electrical apprentices
It’s important to be aware of the wider issues affecting the electrotechnical sector, primarily relating to the skills shortage currently facing the industry. Apprenticeships have long been the preferred route for developing skilled workers in technically specific areas, such as in electrical work. Currently, however, nowhere near enough apprentices are being taken on.
This is an issue that many businesses and organisations have pledged to help resolve. The Electrical Contractor’s Association (ECA) keeps a running tab on the number of qualified electricians needed versus the number of apprentices being delivered as part of its Skills for the Future campaign, which highlights the need for a much larger network of skilled electricians in this country. By taking on an apprentice of your own, you are directly contributing to closing the skills gap and ensuring the UK has enough skilled electricians to take on the complex challenges of the future.
Take your first step towards hiring an apprentice
Post your apprenticeship opportunities on Connected Futures, NICEIC’s very own electrotechnical job board, and receive applications from candidates near you.