5 benefits of employing an apprentice in Scotland

1. Develop skills relevant to your organisation

One of the drawbacks (other than cost) of hiring pre-qualified, experienced talent, is that since your business is unique, there’s no guarantee that the experience they bring will align well with what you need. Indeed, the two could contradict.

Pre-formed talent comes with a set of attitudes, approaches, and ways of working which may need to be un-learned - to harmonise with your culture and objectives.

With an apprentice, learning is oriented around your business goals, not a one-size-fits-all definition of the role. What’s more, it’s accelerated by the hands-on nature of the learning, allowing them to build confidence and deliver impact faster.

That’s why 86% of employers agree apprenticeships helped them gain relevant skills for their organisation.

2. Build a skilled workforce cost effectively

Talent can be like diamonds… the rarer the asset, the higher the price. You don’t need us to tell you that specialist tech talent has become unattainable for many businesses.

Let’s look at an in-demand role like Data Analyst; the average salary currently sits at close to £40k. The average Data Apprentice salary on the other hand, is in the region of £24k. Here at QA we provide the training to bring your apprentice up to skill. This makes sense for you and your apprentice.

In short, the training is free, the salary is more affordable, and the talent is more readily available.

3. Inject diversity

Not only is the raw potential of apprenticeship talent a far larger and more accessible pool compared to pre-qualified talent; it’s also more diverse.

Existing tech talent typically come from a higher education background, which is less accessible for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds or minority demographics.

By choosing apprenticeships instead of hiring expensive ready-made technicians, you create opportunities for those  otherwise blocked from accessing tech careers, and under-represented in the industry.

But that’s not all. It also represents numerous business advantages.

At a glance, here’s what you stand to gain by harnessing diverse apprenticeship talent:

• 15% better chance of outperforming your peers due to gender diversity, and 35% for ethnic diversity, McKinsey
• 30% improvement on team performance, Gartner
• Become more attractive to the 76% of candidates who look for diversity when choosing an employees, Glassdoor
• 70% better likelihood of capturing new markets, Harvard business review

4. Create a greater learning culture

There’s one thing we haven’t mentioned which deeply defines apprenticeship talent: they are motivated to learn and grow with your business.

That can’t be said for every employee. Many are resistant to training, which poses a growing problem with so many new skills (including those in brand new technologies) becoming more crucial by the day, and the poor influx of new talent unable to fill the gaps.

Enter; apprenticeships… and your new culture of ‘lifelong learning’. New talent focused on building futureproof skills can inspire others to do the same.

And for apprentices themselves, what better motivation that an entirely free, recognised qualification and the security of holding digital skills which will set them in good stead for the future?

5. Help to close the digital skills gap

The digital skills gap is a challenge faced by businesses across the UK tech industry, and widespread shortages are holding back progress.

Taking on tech apprenticeships can help organisations to close this gap, by training new talent in the skills your business needs most. 

How do Apprenticeships make a difference?

Each time you hire a ready-made, qualified and skilled candidate, you pay over the odds, and shrink the available talent pool by one. This contributes to two challenges:

1. Unaffordable talent, pricing many organisations out of the tech talent market, stunting innovation and economy growth
2. A shrinking market, where existing talent is in demand, but new talent is not coming in fast enough to replenish

However, each time you hire an apprentice, you are creating fresh talent. You can transform eager candidates with the aptitude to succeed into fully qualified and actively employed talent. This not only sets your business up for success, but begins to turn the tide on a broken system.

Interested in recruiting an apprentice? Complete the form below and our team will be in touch within 48 hours.