WHAT SORT OF APPRENTICE DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED?
Once you have identified your need to employ an apprentice, you need to think about what qualification you would like the potential apprentice to study towards. This directly affects the job advert and the type of applicant you will receive. I know this sounds totally obvious, but the job role must fulfil the requirements of the apprenticeship qualification so that the apprentice receives the relevant hands-on work based experience to enable them to gain the evidence for their portfolios.
Here at Manchester Staff we will help you to write your job description, and with the assistance from our partner Training Providers, we will identify the correct apprenticeship framework that fits your company’s needs.
Whichever path you choose, we will review your job description and will contact you to run through all the information you will need. Don’t forget our apprentice recruitment service is totally free.
IDENTIFY GRANTS AND FUNDING
This really depends on the age of the apprentice you ultimately decide to employ. For 16-18 year old apprentices 100% of your training costs are covered by government funding. For 19-24 year olds the Government funds 50% of the training costs. Due to our partnerships with training providers we may be able to negotiate a lower fee for 19-24 year olds, or waive the fee completely in some cases. Once we have your vacancy we will start negotiating with our training providers to keep the costs as low as possible for your business. We try our hardest to keep it totally free.
If your business is based in Manchester and employs less than 250 staff and has not employed an apprentice before, then you should be eligible to receive up to a £1500 cash grant from the government. This is subject to certain criteria. You can find out more about the AGE 16-24 Grant here.
LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO FIND YOUR APPRENTICE
This is where we really stand out from the crowd. Most training providers and Colleges simply advertise their vacancies on NAS, their own website and free job boards like Indeed. This is not enough in most cases.
Thanks to our access to specialist software, we will upload your job vacancy onto multiple premium job boards such as Reeds and CV Library. We also advertise on the Universal Job Match and a variety of job boards like Indeed and Adzuna, Jobmanji and career search engines and social media. All of this at no cost to you whatsoever.
Premium job boards generally attract the best quality applicants due to their huge marketing budgets, however, they normally cost companies around £175 + VAT just to place a 1 month advert…per job board. That’s a lot of money and risk. We pay for all the marketing and manage the whole recruitment process for FREE. By casting our net across multiple digital channels we are able to reach tens of thousands of Manchester job seekers. We actively engage with candidates on social media to reach passive job seekers and to target specific locations within Manchester.
By using Manchester Staff Ltd you are giving your company the best chance to employ an apprentice in Manchester, with no risk and no cost. You can see our recruitment process by clicking this text.
PRE-SCREENING CANDIDATES
As you can probably imagine, because we advertise on so many digital channels the responses can be quite overwhelming. We use the latest candidate tracking software to manage all the responses, and collect the CVs ready for us to manually review.
We personally filter out the applications that do not match your needs in terms of experience, qualifications and any other specified criteria. Responsive candidates who are enthusiastic may be interviewed immediately over the phone. Where possible, and technology permitting, we can request to arrange a video interview via Facetime or Skype.
During the interview we assess the interpersonal skills of the candidate. We look into their motivations, skills and abilities, past experience and qualifications, gaps in CV timelines and reasons for leaving past jobs.
FORMAL INTERVIEWS
Once we have interviewed the candidates and deemed them potentially suitable for your role, we will send you an email. This will contain the CV, cover letter, and a brief report from our interviews. If we feel that there are any areas that may need deeper questioning during the formal interviews with your company, we will include this.
Once you have reviewed this information, let us know if you would like to proceed with a formal face to face interview with your company. Simply provide us with a convenient date and time, and we will arrange the interview with the candidate. We provide the candidate with location details and send reminder messages closer to the time. We always seek to obtain attendance confirmation from the candidate a day or two before the interview. Once we find you a candidate who you have decided is a right fit, you simply need to follow all the necessary HR and legal steps. This includes conducting a CRB check if necessary, checking the candidate’s right to work in the UK, and checking the candidates work references. These checks are the employer’s responsibility.
OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT & COLLEGE ENROLMENT
Once you’re happy with the candidate’s background checks, provide us with an offer of employment letter that states all the relevant info like the annual wage, agreed duties, and start date. We will forward this to the candidate and seek acceptance of the job offer.
Once the offer is accepted and we have a start date, we will arrange for our training provider to contact you directly to arrange an enrolment appointment. Please note that the new recruit is not an apprentice until they are officially enrolled. Your new recruit will not be eligible for national apprentice minimum wage until enrolment, so if there is a delay, you will have to pay full national minimum wage until they are enrolled. So arrange the appointment as close to the start date as possible. In any case, we advise paying at least the NMW or more in order to get the best candidates.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
According to the National apprenticeship Service, an impressive 92% of apprentice employers believe that Apprenticeships result in motivated and satisfied personnel. The advantages include raised productivity, improved employee retention, and improved bottom lines. However, to attain these advantages you need to totally commit to the apprenticeship with the following responsibilities:
- You must provide on the job training and support in the role.
- You must provide a mentor to guide and support your apprentice.
- You must ensure apprentices gain the relevant practical work-based experience to enable them to gain the evidence for their portfolios.
- You are responsible for the wages of your apprentices (Minimum wages of at least £3.30 per hour for a minimum of 30 hours per week)
- You must available approximately every eight weeks to review the learners’ progress with the training provider assessor.
- You must be able to provide a safe working environment and be compliant with health & safety law.
- If your apprentice needs to attend College for off-site training, you must allow this and pay the apprentice’s wage for time at College.
- You must treat your apprentice fairly, with respect, and treat them like every other member of staff.
Want to employ apprentices in Manchester? Contact us today.
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