Time to hire an apprentice?

If you’re unsure where to start, we’re here to help. At PETA, we have an experienced and knowledgeable apprenticeship team that can assist you every step of the way. We can provide information on apprenticeships and what they involve, help you recruit the right candidates, work with you to come up with the right training programme for your business and help you navigate the funding side of things too.

Engineering apprenticeships

There’s currently an engineering skills shortage in the UK, which is largely down to the lack of young people undertaking training in engineering disciplines. High numbers of the current engineering workforce are reaching retirement age and with fewer younger workers coming through, the overall number of trained engineers is decreasing.

An Engineering UK report stated that:

There is an annual demand for 124,000 engineers and technicians with core engineering skills across the economy
There is a shortfall of between 37,000 and 59,000 in meeting the annual demand for core engineering roles requiring level 3+ skills
Job openings in engineering represent 17.1% of all vacancies

Apprenticeships are the ideal way to train the engineers of the future. Training people in engineering disciplines can take a long time as the roles are often extremely technical and highly skilled, which is why you need to be continually thinking and planning ahead.

A rolling or intermittent apprenticeship programme would help ensure you have the right team in place for the coming years and beyond. Selecting your own apprentice and training them from scratch in line with your business will offer many advantages. They’ll be in tune with your business from the start and will receive the exact training that they need to do the job well.

The apprentice(s) will receive their training in the environment they’ll be working in and they’ll get to know their colleagues as they learn. In return you’ll end up with a member of staff who is confident and competent in their role, with bags of loyalty to your business.

IT, Business and Management apprenticeships

IT

Digital industries are constantly changing and businesses will always require new digital expertise. In addition to that, 70% of the tech industry experience skills shortages. If your company falls into one or both of these categories, taking on an apprentice could be the way forward. Adding an IT or digital apprentice to your team will allow you to enhance these skills within your company; we offer programmes in software development, network engineering and digital marketing.

Business

Most organisations would benefit from additional staff trained in customer service or business administration; an apprenticeship in these areas will add a wide variety of skills to your business that are essential in any commercial industry.

Management

Whether you’re looking for new people to lead your teams or want existing staff to step up, a management apprenticeship will provide the perfect way to build their skills and experience. Our management apprenticeships can be tailored to the needs of the business and will provide a structured approach to learning operational and resource management, business planning strategies and commercial awareness.

Why now’s the perfect time…

You’ll receive a bonus of up to £4,000

The current government apprenticeship incentive offers employers a £3,000 bonus for each apprentice, of any age, employed between 1 April and 30 September 2021. With just 3 weeks left to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity, make sure your business doesn't miss out!

Any organisation hiring a new apprentice aged 16 to 24 up until 30 September 2021, will receive £3,000 for each apprentice they hire (this is in addition to the £1,000 incentive already in place for new 16 to 18 year-old apprentices), offering a potential £4,000 incentive per apprentice.

The bonus can be spent on anything to support your organisation’s costs such as uniforms, your apprentice’s travel or their salary and it does not need to be paid back. Apprentices must be signed up and to have commenced employment by 30 September 2021 to be eligible.

Upskill existing staff

The global pandemic has had huge effects on many businesses in one way or another. If your company has had to change and adapt to navigate the challenges that COVID has presented over the past 18 months, now is the time to address those changes to ensure your business will thrive going forward.

It may mean that you’ve had to restructure your business or make redundancies in areas that are no longer needed due to the changing marketplace. Whilst this may have been necessary, it may also have left skills gaps as your business had changed to fit the new mould.

If you’re not in a position to take on new staff, you could alternatively opt to direct existing employees down the apprenticeship route, enabling them to learn the skills that your business currently lacks. This way you’d reap the financial rewards of taking on an apprentice, whilst also gaining the skills your company needs.

The training might not cost you a penny...

Thanks to the Apprenticeship Levy and Co-funded models for smaller businesses, 95% to 100% of the apprentice training costs will be government-funded. This means that training a new member of staff or upskilling an existing one could cost you nothing, or very little, which is a huge incentive.

The Apprenticeship Levy was introduced in 2017 to create national funding for apprenticeships and to enable businesses of all sizes to implement their own apprenticeship programmes. At PETA, we have a highly experienced team on hand to help you manage your apprenticeship funding to ensure you maximise your investment in apprenticeships - get in touch if you’d like to learn more about your options and how we can help.

Why partner with PETA?

If you choose us to be your apprenticeship training partner, we'll provide a comprehensive recruitment service, including:

Your own recruitment consultant from our experienced engagement team, offering support in candidate selection
Full job description and advertisements on national advertising boards, social media and the PETA website
Pre-interview selection and candidate screening
Interview support and follow-up for candidates and employers
Initial assessment of skills, including Maths and English

Find out more about recruiting an apprentice and get in touch to find out more about starting this journey with us...