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Written by Professional Academy's Contracts Manager Jill Towner
The benefits of training are enjoyed by both employer and employee.
It feels great when an employer recognises and rewards hard work and effort, and one of the ways this can be done is by investing in training. This recognition increases the sense of value as well as improving morale and motivation. In turn this can reduce the rate of employee turnover which, in itself, has multiple benefits: the accompanying fall in cost of recruitment and induction; building up a ‘corporate memory’ – retaining long-serving members of the team who can share intrinsic knowledge and experience which is built up over time. Alongside the increase in morale may come a reduction in staff injury and absence, and the need for excessive supervision as individuals are able to become more responsible and productive.
The financial benefits are clear too, to both learners and the organisation as staff become better skilled, more efficient, able to adopt new methods and technologies and identify for themselves ways in which their role can be performed better. These improvements should lead to increased profits. By developing a thorough understanding of their own products and processes people gain in confidence and develop independent thinking, to the point that they can suggest and implement new products, processes and strategies to improve the business.
But to be successful and demonstrate a return on investment, training has to be relevant and appropriate. That is, the rewards whether countable (quantitative – such as increased profit) or uncountable (qualitative – such as improved morale and retention) must be clear so that everyone involved in the training remains committed and engaged - learners, managers and financial decision-makers.
Having acknowledged the benefits of training, you may be thinking ‘but why chose an apprenticeship?’. For a start, you will be confident when you select an apprenticeship programme, as either a learner or employee, that you will be getting a high standard of training and you can select the provider whose delivery suits you. Only organisations who have been accepted on to the Government’s ‘Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers’, are eligible to deliver the programmes. Training providers like Professional Academy have been delivering training for years and have been rigorously assessed for their suitability. They must adhere to the required learning objectives, support, and assessment requirements stipulated by the industry experts who agreed the programme. With over 600 apprenticeship standards scheduled to be approved (and over 150 already approved) there will be opportunities across the board for anyone who wants to build their skills through an apprenticeship programme.
And not only will there be a guaranteed quality of training - the financial side of apprenticeships stacks up well too. If you are a large organisation you will be paying into the new ‘Apprenticeship Levy’ from April 2017 - and you will use the levy to fund your apprentices. Once you have identified your apprenticeship needs and had them approved, payment goes directly from your levy account to the trainer provider based on evidence of progression – so you don’t have to worry about this side of the process. As a bonus, you will receive 10% of your levy into your account (so if you put in £1,000 you will have £1,100 credited against your account).
Non-levy payers (organisations with a payroll of under £3M p.a.) can apply for apprenticeship funding through the SFA and will contribute 90% with the employer being liable for just the remaining 10%.
So, all-in-all, apprenticeships really are good for your business and Professional Academy will be a good choice if you are considering leadership and management, sales, marketing (including digital), business administration, retail, hospitality, or customer service.
If you would like to talk to one of our business development team about the apprenticeship programmes available and how the schemes work whilst we are getting the website up to speed please do contact us via apprenticeships@professionalacademy.com or drop us a call on 01223 365 505 and one of our team would be happy to have chat at any time.