The benefits of hiring an apprentice

As an employer or owner of a business often your biggest investment is in the staff that work for you. Training, mentoring and paying wages can take a large chunk out of your time and your budget.

That’s why it is crucial to find and hire staff that are the right fit and have the right skills for your organisation. With ongoing skills shortages, however, it can be difficult to find staff with the right skill set for the job.

So maybe you should consider training one yourself?

You can plan for the future

While skills shortages are affecting many industries, you can minimise the impact of these shortages by training your own staff to meet the future demands of your business.

In more skilled or niche trades, particularly in regional or rural Australia, it may be near impossible to find knowledgeable and experienced staff to join your team so training your own may be a necessity.

Easier to find the right fit

When hiring an apprentice, the right cultural fit and personality for your team is far more important.

In a routine hiring process, there is always a fine balance between the hard skills required to do the job, the soft skills that make work run more smoothly and how the candidate fits within the team.

When hiring an apprentice, you can focus so much more on the soft skills you want a candidate to have and how they will fit within your team culture as you will be in charge of developing their on the job knowledge.

The unseen benefits

The benefits of a diverse workforce brings greater team cohesion, productivity and job satisfaction. By injecting an enthusiastic apprentice into the business, you can bring a new energy to your team.

Apprentices are committed too. In fact, more people starting an apprentice complete it compared to those starting a bachelors degree.

Not to mention that once those apprentices have gained certification, they remember the boss that gave them a shot in the industry and tend to be more loyal and motivated employees.

You get support

You may not have to cover all the costs of training yourself. The Federal and State and Territory governments provide a range of incentives to get more apprentices trained and employed.

These incentives will vary depending on a range of factors including skills shortages, geographical area and the age of your apprentice.

So it’s important to find out what your business may be eligible for through the Australian Apprenticeships website.

Another point to remember is that the theory components of learning the job are taken care of by skilled educators either through TAFE or another registered training organisation.

While you will be responsible for their on-the-job training and assessing their practical abilities, you won’t ever need to whip out the chalkboard and textbook!

There are many benefits to hiring an apprentice but sometimes finding one can be tough. That’s where our team can help out. Get in touch with our employer partnerships team to see how we can solve your staffing puzzle.