What your business needs to know about Apprenticeships

It’s about making a difference to you, your people, your business.

If you are looking to recruit a new member of staff or to upskill a current member in your team, then we are here to help and provide you with a fantastic opportunity.  More and more learners are being put off going to university due to higher tuition fees.  This fast track apprenticeship programmme is a great alternative for those young, ambitious individuals looking to start learning and earning on the job.

We value your business highly and want to provide you with a high-quality candidate to make an impact, add value and help fulfill your business needs.  We take the pain out of recruitment and provide you with a service where you will get a suitably qualified candidate.

Our Recruitment Process

Our friendly and pro-active recruitment team source and filter applicants, providing you with the best candidates to interview and appoint.  Here is the process of how we do it:

  1.   We hold an initial meeting to discuss your recruitment needs and skills gap
  2.   You identify the type of candidate you require, and provide us with a job description
  3.   SKillwise Training advertises your job opportunity
  4.   SKillwise Training will review and short list the applicants
  5.   SKillwise Training phone interviews the shortlisted candidates
  6.   Suitable candidates are then invited to a face to face meeting with SW Training
  7.   You will then review the successful candidate’s CV’s and they will be invited to an interview with you
  8.   You decide who you want to appoint
  9.   We make all the arrangements for the learner to start employment with you

Please be aware that should your workplace require a DBS, then this will be your responsibility to process.  Additionally, you will need to acquire your own references for the candidate.

If you have already found your own candidate, they will still need to be filtered through our SW Training recruitment process, as we will need to assess and ensure that they are suitable for the qualification, not only your workplace needs.

Upskilling Your Current Team

If you would like to upskill a current member of your team and provide them with the opportunity to complete an Apprenticeship programme, then we can facilitate this.  There will be no recruitment process, however, we would need to interview the employee to ensure they are suitable for our programme.

Costs to your business

Training costs

For learners aged between 16-18 years, the apprenticeship qualifications are 100 percent Government funded. The Government also offer employer incentive payments and the amount will vary dependant on the qualification that the employee has undertaken and dependent on Government policy at that particular time.

For learners aged 19 years and older, businesses must contribute 5% of the training costs and the other 95 percent is Government funded.  The cost of each qualification varies but our average employer contribution is circa £250 for the 12-15 month programme.  Exact costs will be discussed in our initial meeting.

Salary

Apprentices must be paid at least the apprenticeship minimum wage.  There is no upper limit of what you can pay an apprentice, however, our recommendation is that you increase the amount dependant on age, location and responsibilities. We can advise and guide you on this in our initial conversation. We require the employee to be in work and paid for a minimum of 30 hours per week.  This will all be discussed in your training needs meeting.

Learners aged 16- 18 years must be paid at least the minimum apprenticeship wage.  Once they reach 19 and have completed 1 year of their apprenticeship, they must be paid National Minimum Wage for their age.

Learners aged 19 years or older must be paid at least the minimum apprenticeship wage for the first year of their employment. Once the learner has been in work for 1 year, they must be paid the National Minimum Wage for their age. If a learner has already completed a year’s apprenticeship at another employer, then they must be paid the National Minimum Wage for their age from the start of their apprenticeship.

Employer Commitment

The finite details of your commitment will be explained to you in your initial discussion with the team as it varies from programme to programme.  The minimum requirement that is expected is that you can accommodate a monthly meeting between the learner and assessor for approx. two hours.  Following the meeting, a superior of the apprentice would need to be present for feedback following the meeting.

It is also a funding requirement that each learner has 20% off the job training time which allows them to complete tasks and coursework for their qualification and development in their role.  The 20% off the job training can be allocated around you and the needs of your business.

What Happens At The End Of The Apprenticeship?

Upon successful completion of the apprenticeship, you now have a decision to make on your employee’s future within your business.  Skillwise Training will also advise of any other training opportunities and upskilling should this be relevant or needed.