The economy seems to be slowly gathering momentum. But for many small businesses, they can still struggle to grow.
Whether the climate just isn’t right for your business right now, or you don’ have enough people working for you with the right qualifications or training, it can be time to make some changes to help keep things going well.
One of those changes that can make a difference is the use of apprentices within your business. Have you ever thought about that before?
In many ways, an apprentice can feel like you have to give up so much time to train someone new. But the fact is that they can benefit the business, bring new ideas, new energy, and a different take on things, that it can be a tool for growth for your business.
So if you are at a bit of a stalemate with your business and want to get things going again, hiring apprentices could be just what you need. Here are just some of the reasons that they can help.
Increase in Productivity
Apprentices can be good for business as they can bring a whole new lease of life to the business. If you think about it, there are many apprenticeships for 16 year olds and school leavers, so you have some young blood to bring fresh and new ideas to the mix.
According to the NAS, businesses with apprentices can on average improve productivity buy over £200 a week.
Loyalty
When you have apprentices in the business, it can be a big undertaking. As while there are benefits, you do have to invest some time and energy to train them and give them a mentor.
But it has been found that nearly 70% of apprentices stay with the employer that hired them once their apprenticeship is over. So if you want to train up a workforce and have employees with some longevity, it makes sense to make part of that apprentices.
Financial Support
There is an additional benefit to having apprentices on the team as there are different requirements to what they get paid. But in addition to that, because of the time it takes to train them up and have someone mentor them, there are grants and other financial support available if you take on apprentices in your business.
If your business has less than 1000 employees, then you can definitely apply for the grant to make taking on apprentices even easier.
Talent Pool
Further study and things like that are not going to be for everyone. So there are still plenty of people that are looking to do apprenticeships but there is no space for them.
In fact, it is recorded that there are over 10 people applying per apprenticeship placement. So there are unfortunately plenty of people not making it through.
But on a positive note for your business it shows there are plenty of people to choose from, making the talent pool pretty high. So you can recruit the best, train them up, and more than if all goes well have a great employee stick with you.
