5 Top Ways Apprenticeships Benefit Employers

You may or may not know much about financial services apprenticeships. In a nutshell, candidates are sponsored by their employer, in order to gain qualifications, skills and experience while simultaneously earning a salary. That’s great, but what’s in it for the employer?

A quick introduction to apprenticeships

Firstly, it is good to have a background knowledge of what apprenticeships are and how they work:

• Recruit a brand new candidate or choose to upskill existing staff – the only criteria is that they are aged 16 years or over, live in England and have a right to work in England.

• Apprenticeships combine study with paid employment – your candidate will work a minimum of 30 hours per week.

• Candidates learn new skills alongside work experience – the nature of apprenticeships means that candidates get a highly relevant, rounded education which is perfect for the financial services industry.

• Recognised qualifications – apprentices’ study time is focussed on earning an industry recognised, relevant, respected qualification.

• The cost of training is covered by the Government – this makes apprenticeships extremely attractive to candidates and allows them the opportunity to reach their full potential.

It is clear that apprenticeships have a lot to offer candidates in terms of exceptional training without the financial burden. However, let’s now look at the five top ways that financial apprenticeships also benefit you, the employer…

1. Raising the standards

When you offer an apprenticeship you invest in your workforce. Candidates learn new skills and up-to-date knowledge through study which they can immediately put into use at your business.

As their skills develop, their confidence and ambition grows and your employee becomes an ever more valuable member of the team.

By training your staff, you raise the standards of your workforce, offering a better, more competitive service to clients.

2. Retain the industry’s best staff

Your team is already great: you chose them! So, when you train that great team and arm them with new knowledge, skills and experience, they become the best of the best in the financial services industry.

But, will your great team stick around? It is fair to say that apprenticeships give them a very good reason to stay. Staff that feel valued and are given opportunities to progress are far more likely to show loyalty than those who feel taken for granted or that their career is stagnant.

3. Boost morale

When apprentices spend time in the workplace, they are able to put their newly acquired skills into immediate practise. This is exciting and injects an atmosphere of enthusiasm that is hard to ignore. Consequently, it is not just the candidate who comes into work with a spring in their step: everyone around them is drawn into their productive good mood.

4. Tailorable programmes

There are a range of established, respected financial services apprenticeships including:

• Mortgage Adviser
• Financial Services Administrator
• Insurance Practitioner

These examples are just a taste of what is available and under Simply Academy candidates complete their respective programme feeling confident and competent as they enter the financial services sector.

However, if you have something specific in mind or wish to train someone who already has experience, you are always invited to make requests. You can tailor the apprenticeship scheme to ensure your candidate learns the skills to suit their exact job role.

5. Apprenticeships are cost-effective

Financial services apprenticeships remain an extremely cost effective way of recruiting or upskilling staff. Here’s how:

• You do not completely lose a member of staff to study: they remain an employee, implementing new skills at the office.
• Apprenticeship training results in loyal, knowledgeable staff at minimal expense.
• You may even be eligible for generous government funding to help cover the cost of apprenticeship training.
• It is possible that your business already pays into a levy reserved exclusively for apprenticeship training. If you do not allocate this money to training in time you could lose it altogether.

Everyone’s a winner!

So, as you can see, financial services apprenticeships not only make a great training options for the candidates, they are also fantastic for the employers.

Placing someone on an apprenticeship and enabling them to complete their training is also a much easier process than you may think.

Get in touch

Simply Academy are experienced experts in running financial services apprenticeships. If you would like more information on the schemes and how we can help you, get in touch. Our friendly, knowledgeable team are on hand to answer all your questions.