Apprenticeships Are Vital, But Are They Delivering Their Full Potential?

Apprenticeships are a vital part of the UK’s workforce and economy, offering school leavers and seasoned workers alike the opportunity to learn new skills, gain accredited qualifications and earn while they learn. Apprenticeships are growing in popularity, with more than 70,000 employers hosting over 400,000 apprenticeship starts each year.

However, despite their popularity, there seems to be a sticking point preventing apprenticeships from truly fulfilling their potential value to both employer and apprentice. This blog explores what’s causing them to fall short, and the shifts in focus and perspective which will help ensure individuals and business receive the full benefits apprenticeships provide.

The value of apprenticeships

First, let’s dispel the myth that apprenticeships are a lesser alternative to higher education. The reality is that people entering the workforce for the first time are struggling: 51% of Gen Z employees say their education has not prepared them for the world of work. 

Apprenticeships provide real-life experience at the same time as gaining academic qualifications. with many translating into degree level skill. This means there is no longer a trade-off between experience and qualifications; both can be on the table. 

Importantly- and still surprisingly to some- Apprenticeships are not just for school leavers. Whatever rung of the career ladder you are on, Apprenticeships are a valuable route to promotions, new challenges and pivoting passions. They are a way for individuals of all backgrounds to increase their employability and build greater opportunities for themselves.

The benefits of apprenticeships for businesses

The benefits of apprenticeships do not belong solely to the apprentice. For organisations that take on apprentices, it’s a great way to attract diverse talent, reskill existing employees and strategically craft a workforce and skillset that is purpose-built for the individual business. organisations can’t afford to 

Apprenticeship standards are designed by employers themselves, so you’re training individuals based on the specific needs of your industry – something no other form of education can do quite like this. With the World Economic Forum predicting 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025, businesses must take all opportunities available to grow their own talent when it is increasingly less available in the traditional labour market. 

And when the UK government has been syphoning cash from the UK’s biggest employers since 2017 in the form of the Apprenticeship Levy, all businesses of any size should be taking advantage of this economic incentive just waiting to be turned into skilled employees.

How successful are apprenticeships at the moment?

Here lies the issue that must be addressed: despite all this potential value for the workforce, businesses and the economy – there are some puzzling statistics surrounding the success rate of apprenticeships.

A report by education think-tank EDSK discovered that almost half of apprenticeship starts do not translate to a completed programme and qualification. This is because 47% of apprentices drop out before completion.

Whilst many apprenticeship leavers have moved on for positive reasons, including new job offers or promotions ahead of schedule, many have left for worrying reasons. These include a lack of quality in the training content, a lack of hands-on experience and overall mismanagement.

Apprentices are learners first, workers second

The EDSK report revealed that some employers treat apprentices as workers first, rather than learners first, with as many as one fifth of apprentices receiving no ‘on the job’ training from their employer at all.

The lack of genuine training has become so prevalent that one in ten apprentices are not aware that they are on an apprenticeship as there’s no distinction between them and regular employees – except for their wage.

The Pandemic Effect

It would be remiss to ignore the fact that Apprenticeships have been put through their paces these last few years. Both training and employer providers, faced with the sudden upheaval to remote working (and therefore learning), a wellbeing crisis and constant unknowns ahead, had to scramble to adapt. What worked and was assumed just months earlier, was now completely up in the air. 

Add to this The Great Resignation and unprecedented labour shortages, and apprentices likely found themselves prematurely upgraded to employee status to simply keep things moving. 

Aspiration is a powerful driver of diverse talent, and a common characteristic of most apprentices by virtue of the route they have chosen. They’re ready for hard work, but today apprentices are being asked to learn, adapt and deliver at a pace not imagined pre-pandemic, and something has to shift in order to reflect that at a fundamental level.

Future-proof your apprenticeships

Learners are at risk of being limited not only by their programme’s shortcomings, but by their own mindset; an “I’m only an apprentice” mindset.

A lack of confidence and uncertainty around their level of influence stops them from sharing their own ideas, asking questions, building relationships and developing their strengths. Receiving training which challenges these preconceptions and demystifies what it means to be truly effective, is a game changer. 

At FranklinCovey, three decades of experience has proven that for growth and success to be sustainable in any line of work, and an increasingly complex world, individual change has to come from the inside-out.

Why Knowledge- Skills-Behaviour will be the difference-maker 

The three pillars of apprenticeships are Knowledge- Skills-Behaviour. Rather than being the final box that is ticked, behaviours need to be a priority which is ensured, measured and reinforced. They need to be more intentionally brought to the forefront of a learners’ experience. 

The FranklinCovey See- Do- Get model, which underpins everything we do, explains why. The results we get depend on what we do. What we do depends on how we see things, the world around us. When you start by addressing who apprentices are (character) and how they think (mindset), you ensure new skills and behaviours are firmly-rooted, authentic and future-proof.

A survey from Buring Glass found that one in every three skills requested by employers is a “soft skill”, not a technical skill. Effective behaviours– the ability to communicate, collaborate, engage, adapt, decide, advocate- are what make technical skills usable. They are the practices which give people power in the workplace, including the ability to learn, grow and stretch themselves. 

Josh Bersin perfectly articulates why the very terms “hard” and “soft” skills are losing their relevance. He writes, “Hard Skills are soft (they change all the time, are constantly being obsoleted, and are relatively easy to learn), and Soft Skills are hard (they are difficult to build, critical, and take extreme effort to obtain).”

It is true that the behavioural element of apprenticeships are more difficult to consistently instil, inspire and measure in apprentices than teaching a new piece of information. That is why specialist attention is needed to embed and reinforce them. 

FranklinCovey has that specialism. We continue a legacy which started over three decades ago with Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, today named the #1 most influential business book of the 20th Century and translated into our flagship content solution. 

“Are the 7 Habits® as relevant today as they were when they were first created? Absolutely, they are more relevant than ever before. The greater the change, the more difficult the challenges, the more relevant the 7 Habits become. Why? Because they are based on principles of effectiveness that endure.”

Ensure your apprenticeships are fit for purpose

Ultimately, there is a lot to celebrate about Apprenticeships. For mobilising diverse individuals and amplifying organisations, the potential they offer the future of work is immense.

Fulfilling this potential means making sure you are providing for and investing in apprentices as learners, not workers, and whole people, not receptacles for hard skills (which are constantly changing and shifting in value). Apprentices will develop skills for life and be a driving force for businesses, but only if their apprenticeship is built on foundations of effectiveness which endure.

We work in partnership with both employers and training providers to enhance your apprenticeship delivery, ensuring as much focus on developing apprentice’s overall workplace and personal effectiveness as well as the role and industry-specific skillsets needed for success.

We help you build and strengthen your existing apprenticeship delivery programme to meet the needs of apprentices, keeps them engaged and provide the tools to assess their progress. Click here to learn more about a partnership with FranklinCovey in the apprenticeship space.