Apprenticeships: Good business sense

Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships are one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to ensure that your business runs both smoothly and productively, with all Apprenticeship programmes being developed in conjunction with businesses like yours, designed to tailor the skills that you need into the staff that you already have or are looking to employ. Nearly all of the training is carried out during the normal day to day running of your business, with our Assessors coming to you and in most cases the apprentice only spending relatively few hours at college over the entire length of the course. 

What City College Norwich offer

As one of the region’s leading and largest Training Providers, City College Norwich offers both Level 2 Apprenticeships and Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeships covering a wide variety of occupations and industry sectors. Below are the most common, but not all of the areas covered here at City College Norwich:

• Health and Social Care
• Health (Clinical Healthcare Support) 
• Health (Healthcare Support Services)
• Children and Young People's Workforce
• Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools
• Health (Dental Nursing)
• Business and Administration (including Medical Administration pathway) 
• Customer Service
• Contact Centre Operations 
• Sales and Telesales 
• Marketing 
• Management
• Providing Financial Services 
• Providing Financial Advice
• IT Users
• Warehousing and Storage 
• Retail (including Sales, Management and Visual Merchandising pathways) 
• Technical Theatre (Lighting, Sound & Stage)
• Cultural and Heritage Venue Operations
• Live Events and Promotion
• Costume and Wardobe
• Music Business 
• Hairdressing
• Hospitality and Catering (including Hospitality Services, Food & Beverage Service, Food Production & Cooking, Professional Cookery, Housekeeping, Front of House Reception, Patisserie and Confectionery, Hospitality Supervision  pathways)
• Construction- Wood Occupations (including Site Carpentry and Bench Joinery pathways)
• Construction- Trowel Occupations (Bricklaying pathway)
• Plumbing
• Electrotechnical
• Providing Security Services

The great news for businesses like yours is at present there is a large amount of government funding available to employers for training apprentices; with staff aged 18 and under generally being fully funded and only a small percentage contribution being required from employers of those aged 19 and over. As the learner is employed by you on a fixed term contract (fixed to the length of the Apprenticeship), there are no extra terms and conditions to put in place over and above your normal procedure, couple that with a minimum wage from just £2.60* per hour and you can see why Apprenticeships offer a proposition that is hard to refuse.

Apprenticeships - How they benefit your business

You get enthusiastic staff, eager to learn the skills that you as an employer need for your business, creating a more productive working environment which in most cases will be heavily if not fully funded (except wages). But don’t just take our word for it, earlier research revealed:

• 77% of employers believe apprenticeships make them more competitive
• 88% believe that apprenticeships lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce
• 80% feel that apprenticeships reduce staff turnover
• 76% say that apprenticeships provide higher overall productivity

Given the considerable time and expense taken when recruiting you will be surprised to know that we actively assist in recruiting your apprentice(s) through our complimentary advertising on the National Apprenticeship Vacancies website; www.apprenticeships.org.uk, via Connexions and on our own Employer/Student Job Vacancy website, which is promoted to 14,000+ students a year. We then screen all online applications before sending you a shortlist to interview in line with your normal recruitment process, leaving you free to use your time and resources in a much more productive way.

By training through City College Norwich, your apprentice(s) can enjoy the full range of benefits and support available to all of our students.

For more information on Apprenticeships, if you are interested in recruiting an apprentice or offering your employees an Apprenticeship contact our Employer Partnerships Team on Freephone: 0800 328 3616 or Email: employerpartnerships@ccn.ac.uk. Course information can also be located by visiting www.ccn.ac.uk/courses.

* A new National Minimum Wage for apprentices has been introduced from 1 October 2010. The wage will apply to all apprentices aged under 19; and apprentices aged 19 or over in the first year of their Apprenticeship.

The Apprentice minimum wage will be £2.60 per hour and applies to time working, plus the time that is spent training as part of the Apprenticeship.

Employers will be free to pay above the new wage. Many already do so and this change will not affect that but employers must ensure that they are paying their apprentices at least the minimum wage.