This week we’re celebrating apprenticeships! As early career professionals, we know that apprenticeships offer a powerful alternative to traditional pathways into work and create amazing opportunities for young people across the UK.
They offer a chance for young people to learn from experienced professionals, gain recognised qualifications and launch a rewarding career without the burden of student debt.
However, with interest in apprenticeships consistently growing, there are now far more students exploring this pathway than there are available opportunities. Young people are ambitious to apply, but many feel they don’t have the skills or experience needed. They want to gain the experience, but aren’t sure where to start or lack the access to do so.
For early careers teams, they risk being overwhelmed by applications, which not only adds pressure on an already busy workload but also runs the risk of missing out on talent, simply because they don’t cut through the noise of a huge stack of apprenticeship applications.
But the answer may be in the stages before a young person even applies. Educators, employers and careers teams can help support and guide young people long before they apply, helping them build the confidence, knowledge and skills they need to be successful. In turn, this makes the application process so much smoother for early career teams.
We’ve put together 5 actionable tips to help prepare young people for apprenticeship success, based on what we’ve seen work for high-performing early careers teams
Help them build skills before the application stage
Young people bring huge potential, enthusiasm and a fresh outlook to the workforce, but they often underestimate the skills they already have or feel like they need to succeed.
In a recent webinar we delivered with Aldi UK, Josh, a Manufacturing Engineering Degree Apprentice, stated that “Young people don’t think they have the skills necessary to carry out a specific role or the skills necessary to even go through the application process.”
Skills like time-management, adaptability and teamwork are built through practice. With the right guidance and reflection from employers and careers teams, young people can build the foundational knowledge and confidence they need for real-world scenarios
See how Rolls Royce are offering young people skills training to prepare them for industry expectations.
Prepare them for interviews
Effective interview preparation can help young people feel less daunted about the real thing. In fact, 38% of young people say that interview skills training would be most helpful in finding them a job.
When candidates are prepared, they’ll show up to interviews more articulate, more confident and ready to give their best. They’ll deliver a stronger performance, which means a smoother progression through recruitment stages and a measurable improvement in time-to-hire.
Like any skill, the more you practice the better you become. Being able to do that in a scenario as close to the real thing as possible is incredibly helpful in building those skills. This could look like:
- Role-specific questions that learners can answer out loud
- Feedback given in real-time to help improve answers and delivery
- A score or evaluation so learners can continue to practise until they feel ready
There are tools like Springpod’s AI Interview Coach which can help create this simulative experience and offer young people a safe space to practise their skills for real hiring situations.
Interview coaching has many benefits to students, but also for employers. By providing this level of coaching, you’ll also position yourself as an organisation that’s invested in candidate success. Not only will you build long-term trust with students long before the application stage, but you’ll also demonstrate your commitment to DEI and strengthen your employer brand.
Offer experiences they can evidence
While a packed out CV isn't necessary to apply for an apprenticeship, getting as many experiences on there as possible will help them stand out amongst the large volumes of applications.
Young people are ambitious to prove what they can do and eager to gain more experience, so they feel more confident applying for roles. It’s just that in most cases, access to experiences that are engaging and meaningful are limited.
There are multiple solutions organisations are offering young people to support with CV-worthy experience. Things like Virtual Work Experience (VWEX) and digital skills training are all accessible and inclusive ways to bridge the opportunity gap.
Our favourite example is Micro-Internships, which are a fantastic way of enabling students to tackle real-world business scenarios, taking on projects from real organisations, and adding credible experience to their CV.
"[Our Micro-Internship] addresses a number of challenges universities face from recruitment through to graduate outcomes" - Iwan Williams, Director of Careers and Employability at the University of Liverpool.
Check out how the University of Liverpool improved student employability skills by 38% with the introduction of a Micro-Internship programme.
Review your Virtual Work Experience (VWEX) engagement data
If you already offer Virtual Work Experience (VWEX) programmes as part of your early careers strategy, amazing! You’ll already have a lot of useful data to help with preparing young people for their apprenticeships.
For early careers teams, this data is an early indicator of candidate motivations, role alignment and future quality of higher.
What VWEX engagement data can reveal:
- Enrolments vs completions: If you’re getting consistent drop-offs, identify where it’s happening can help you adjust content or provide extra guidance so learners are more prepared
- Activity: Are certain programmes more popular than others? What’s resonating the most? The answers can help you provide a more engaging experience overall and you’ll know what to carry over into your apprenticeships
- Traffic sources: Knowing where young people are finding your organisation could mean more resources should be put into those sources and strengthen your outreach strategies
A good understanding of your engagement trends gives you the valuable insight needed to refine your strategies, remove barriers early and better support your future apprentices.
Reach your candidates before they apply
By the time candidates reach the application stage, most of the important elements like understanding of the role, skills and confidence are already locked in. This is why it’s essential to help them develop these long before they even decide to apply. When young people are fully informed of what an apprenticeship looks like, their apprehension to apply turns into readiness.
Aldi UK said that despite the thousands of applications they were getting for apprenticeship roles, they found that the majority of candidates didn’t really understand what they were applying for. We also heard from students that “employers need to give more transparency on what [candidates] will do in the role that they’re applying for.”
Because of this, they wanted to ensure young people were fully aware of what a career in retail could entail beforehand, and that they had the necessary skills and experiences relevant to that industry to set them up for success.
They did this by offering engaging work experiences that gave a glimpse into working in retail and adjusting their recruitment strategies to include more screening steps. This way, the candidates who were right for the role and genuinely passionate about the industry progressed through the process.
Overall, it’s crucial that the application stage isn’t the first interaction your candidates are having with your organisation. There are a variety of ways you can ensure you’re reaching them long before they apply.
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To sum up, young people deserve to feel prepared and confident to take on apprenticeships long before they even apply.
By giving them the skills, knowledge and guidance they need to succeed, employers also improve candidate quality, conversion and retention rates while positioning themselves as an organisation that’s invested in early careers and committed to building the future workforce.
Exploring future options
Through our Skills for Life programmes students get the information they need to make an informed decision and explore the exciting opportunities vocational pathways can offer from real-world experience to recognised qualifications. As they take part, they will discover more about each pathway and decide whether it’s the right fit for them.
We also have an Opportunity Portal, where young people can browse for available apprenticeships at some of the UK's biggest organisations.
