TGt Meets... Daniel Busson

1. Why did you choose to take on an Apprentice?

 

CapitaWFM is a software development company which focuses primarily on Work Force Management Solutions. 

The business was going through a high turnover rate within the support team with experienced engineers joining the business and then leaving a few months later. As a dynamic and innovative company we like to ensure we use the best available technologies and as a result require our engineers to be willing to learn new skills and systems. As a result we were looking at other possible solutions and we came across a news article explaining how apprentices could benefit a business by providing young people at the start of their careers who wanted to learn and could also be cost effective to the business.

 

Apprentices have since become a core valued area of our business and future positions are now first being offered as apprenticeships. As a result we have hosted 16 apprentices since 2011, 14 apprentices have been employed on completion and 2 are still studying towards their IT apprenticeships.

 

 

2. How did you go about finding an Apprentice to bring in to your business?

 

When we first started employing apprentices we didn’t really know what we were doing and needed a lot of support to ensure we delivered the best apprenticeship we could at the time. As a result we formed a close partnership with an apprenticeship provider who helped us to identify possible candidates and supported us through the entire apprenticeship process. The first couple of years was a learning experience and with the knowledge we had gained we started to form partnerships with the local council and colleges which provided access to various events enabling us to showcase our highly successful apprenticeship scheme direct to potential apprentices. 

 

 

3. What are the benefits of employing an Apprentice?

 

The apprenticeship programme started with 1 IT Level 2 apprentice expanding to bring in more apprentices throughout the whole business. Over the years we have employed young people that want to be in our business and learn the IT trade which has brought fresh enthusiasm within the teams they work in. 

 

Staff from other departments has seen how successful the apprentices have been within the support team and are now introducing apprentices to their own teams. This is largely due to us finding apprentices who come into the business with little or no experience who have been able to offer new ideas on how we can approve our software and/or processes within the business. We have also found that apprentices are more committed to the role and the business as they see an apprenticeship as their chance to learn new and up-to-date skills. This in turn results in much lower staff turnover numbers. 

 

We feel the apprenticeship scheme has delivered value for money and has already returned our initial investment by providing us with raw talent which we have been able to train and share our knowledge with to enable a younger and hungrier team to be built within the business. We also measure this by the number of apprentices that complete their initial 12 months and then remain with the business climbing the ladder into more senior roles. A number of our apprentices have now progressed into senior roles within CapitaWFM ranging from senior support analysts who also provide cover for the support manager when unavailable and project co-ordinators responsible for managing and booking the offsite engineers and managing the project managers work list.

 

The apprentices have also been a huge hit with our customers who find that the apprentices talk to them regarding technical issues at their level making the solution a lot easier for the customer which in turn has increased customer satisfaction levels over the past 3 years. The apprentices have also been involved with attending careers events helping to promote the business in the local area and also in particular helping us to promote apprenticeships.

 

 

4. What are the advantages of bringing in an Apprentice, over more conventional employment methods?

 

The main advantage we have found with employing apprentices is that we have been able to retain them much longer within the business compared to already skilled workers who stayed for short periods of time. The apprentices arrive with a limited skill set and we spend a lot of time training and helping them develop both their professional and personal skillset. The apprentices as a result stay with the business which has resulted in us having a much higher retention rate in key areas. A lot of apprentices are now in senior positions within the business and continuing to learn and progress resulting in a much lower staff turnover rate.

 

 

5. What role does your apprentice play in the day-to-day operation of your business?

 

Our apprentices take on a full role within the business and are treated as a full member of the team with the same responsibilities. They are closely supervised for the first 3 months and are then fully integrated into their team. We ask them to do the same work as their more experienced colleagues but ensure they have support available to them should they need it. As apprentices we also ask them to take part in various careers events to help us promote apprenticeships to the next generation. They speak to students and parents from schools and colleges about their apprenticeship experience and also attend large events such as Jobfest as representatives of our business to engage with the general public and showcase our apprenticeship scheme.

 

 

6. Were there any challenges you faced employing an Apprentice?

 

We faced many challenges when we first took on apprentices but the most noticeable was how we managed the apprenticeship itself and more importantly identifying what help was available to us as an employer and as a result of this helping with the funding and training applications. Being new to apprenticeships it was quite a daunting prospect identifying what funding was available to employers and then how we go about applying for it. We had to also re-think how we did our internal training which was initially developed for experienced people and had to be re-designed to allow an apprentice with very little experience to learn at a combatable speed but without reducing the output of the team. 

 

 

7. How did the training your Apprentice received fit around their responsibilities in your business?

 

Training is a key aspect of any apprenticeship and as such we allow all our apprentices time during the normal working week to complete both our own training program but also their NVQ training which is a compulsory part of their apprenticeship. We carefully monitored their training progress and if needed provided additional support to them to ensure they completed their training by the required time and achieved their qualifications at the end of their apprenticeship. We gave all our apprentices a set list of training they would receive and then it was largely up to the apprentice to decide what additional training they would like to receive on top of the set program. We feel the best way for an apprentice to learn was to allow them to partly decide what they wanted to learn, therefore keeping their interest peaked. During the course of the apprenticeship year the apprentice would spend time in various parts of the business exposing them to the different aspects and allowing them to see how each area works. If they then decided they wanted to learn more about a certain part of the business we would try and tailor their training to the areas they had the most interest in. This however was on top of their general day to day duties and would have to fit around the needs of the business.

 

 

8. What happened once the Apprenticeship had finished?

 

All 14 apprentices that have successfully completed their 12 month apprenticeship were all offered a permanent position within the business and 9 of those are still with the business today with 3 in senior positons. The whole drive to start an apprenticeships scheme was to bring in young raw talent and allow them to grow within the business to enable us to retain the key skills they have learnt here. As a bespoke software Development Company it takes time and resource to train someone on our solutions so it makes it even more important that we retain those individuals were possible.

 

 

9. What was it like working alongside the Apprenticeship provider?

 

When we first started our apprenticeship scheme we could not have got were we are without the help and support from our apprenticeship provider. Their experience and knowledge was key to ensuring we were delivering the best possible apprenticeship and more importantly helping us secure the funding as an employer we were entitled to which helped us ensure the apprentice received the support they needed throughout the year with both their training and personal development. Over the years we have learnt a lot from our provider and now we use that knowledge to largely manage the apprenticeships ourselves, however knowing they are only a phone call away is still of great help.

 

 

10. What advice would you give another business that is interested in employing an Apprentice?

 

Whenever I’m asked by other businesses if they should consider taking on apprentices my answer is simply yes! Our apprentices have become a key component in the company’s success and growth over the past 5 years and looking back taking on apprentices was one of the best decisions our business ever made. 

 

Most businesses I have spoken to have told me that they really do want to take on apprentices, however the process of starting an apprenticeship scheme and taking on apprentices is too complicated and takes time and resource just not available to them. The important point to remember is that you are not on your own, there is lots of help and support out there for employers to help get them started and support them through the whole process. Making sure key skills are passed down through the generations is important to the growth of any business and apprenticeships can be one of the most rewarding routes to achieve this.