How can apprenticeships boost recruitment?

Apprenticeships can support attraction, development and retention in your organisation 

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on NHS Employers

There is a wide range of apprenticeships now available, including higher and degree level apprenticeships. Not only can they help in addressing skills shortages, they are also an excellent means of attracting new talent, developing and upskilling existing staff, and retaining the workforce within the NHS.

Apprenticeships can … 

• help develop clear career pathways and retain staff – apprenticeship pathways are now being developed to provide higher level technical skills and provide a great option for retaining the existing workforce and building talent pipelines. 

• develop your existing workforce – retaining the skills and experience of existing employees is vital if employers are to avoid future skills shortages. Many employers are now offering apprenticeships at all levels to existing staff across a wide range of roles and disciplines as part of their strategy. 

• help you to reshape your workforce – when thinking about how they can redesign and shape the workforce in order to respond to, and anticipate, service needs, many employers are ensuring that apprenticeships form a key part of their workforce supply strategy. 

• be flexible – an apprenticeship can be done in a flexible way based on business needs, or in an accelerated manner if needed. If an organisation has non-typical working patterns – for example, shift work or project-based employment – training can be adapted to better suit the business needs. For example, training can be offered in blocks which could offer the apprentice the opportunity to gain key knowledge and required skills early into the apprenticeship. This is particularly common in healthcare where health and safety, and other important elements, can be covered prior to entering the workplace.

If an apprentice has been recruited who has some prior knowledge or skills before starting the apprenticeship, it is possible to recognise this as prior learning. The employer can, therefore, remove some elements from their training plan given their previous understanding which can then impact the time spent on the apprenticeship; a reduction of three months or more may be considered in an accelerated apprenticeship.

Those on an accelerated apprenticeship could be an existing employee using an apprenticeship to upskill into a more senior role, or those who have already completed a relevant qualification.

• have lower attrition rates – national dropout rates for many university courses tend to be relatively high, particularly in the first six months. 

• attract and recruit from a wider pool of people in your local community – apprenticeships present a genuine alternative to full-time college or university study to anyone aged 16 and over. They can widen access to employment for all areas of your local community – for example, the nurse degree apprenticeship, which leads to the same qualification as the traditional route, can be offered to new or existing staff. 

• offer flexibility and innovation to open the doors for future nurses – employers can open doors for the existing and future nursing workforce in their local communities by building a nursing partnership with their providers.

• recruit a diverse and representative workforce – inclusive recruitment to better reflect the community you serve is a key message of the NHS People Plan and inclusive apprenticeship recruitment can also lead to better retention rates and improved workforce supply. The benefits of establishing and maintaining a diverse and representative workforce are well understood; teams are more innovative and creative. It is also found that patients have better experiences of care when the workforce mirrors the patient population.

Taking positive action during the recruitment process can enable you to diversify your workforce and deliver against actions in the NHS People Plan, Workforce Race Equality Standard and the Workforce Disability Equality Standard.

Positive action can support employers under the Equality Act 2010 to recruit and promote people from under-represented groups to help them overcome disadvantages in competing with other applicants. 

Ensure that your recruitment processes are accessible to all. Ask whether reasonable adjustments are required and, if so, provide them – this may be including hearing loops, accessible software for any computer-based activity, a wheelchair-accessible space for all activities, papers in large print and colour filters available, or access to a computer for any written task for those who struggle with paper-based activity.