A recent survey of businesses that are considering starting apprenticeships has shown that more than a quarter think the recruitment process for taking on apprentices should be made simpler.
The survey by City & Guilds showed that 89 per cent of the employers and HR managers surveyed felt that apprenticeships were crucial to their companies’ future success, but that the process of actually setting up a scheme remained an impediment.
More than 80 per cent of the people surveyed said they had already experienced barriers in trying to recruit apprentices, while 26 per cent said it was important for the process to be made simpler and less time consuming.
Commenting on the survey, the chief executive of the Financial Services Skills Council, Liz Field, said that employer-hosted training programmes were gaining credence, especially with steadily rising university fees. She emphasised that the means of instigating and recruiting for the schemes, however, needed to be streamlined.
Geoff Newman who works for online recruitment company Recruitment Genius currently employees several apprentices. He commented “apprenticeships are a win-win situation for everyone. The training is very closely aligned with the business requirements and the apprentices get solid business skills that even some graduates lack.”
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