Supporting Your Apprentice
Taking on an Apprentice is a two-way street. What you as the Employer put into training the Apprentice, embedding valuable knowledge, skills and insight will usually provide you with a complete and well-trained Apprentice come End-Point Assessment time.
It is essential that you support your Apprentice throughout their entire apprenticeship, check out our blog where we regularly post our tips on how to embed valuable Off-the-Job Training into your programme and how to navigate End-Point Assessment.
Employers must be able to provide their Apprentice with an induction into their role and provide On-the-Job Training. Ensuring that an Apprentice feels comfortable in their surroundings and making yourself approachable as an Employer when they have questions are two key initial building blocks.
How can you ensure that an Apprentice feels part of the team and welcomed from the outset? Make the introduction period as comprehensive as possible, including perhaps the mapping out of their Apprenticeship Standard criteria in order to have logical steps and goals throughout the time they will be with you in training.
It’s always a good idea to remember that an Apprentice has committed to you and committed to learning the job inside out in order to help their career prospects and your company. Offering support and training opportunities where you can will be invaluable to their personal and professional development.
The more trust you place in your Apprentices, the more you are presenting them with the opportunity to showcase their skills through their development.
A good idea might be to provide your Apprentice with a role model or apply a shadowing/mentoring approach so your Apprentice has someone to take advice from and enhance their skills and opportunities.
The use of regular appraisals or catch-ups may also prove to be excellent tools to recap with your Apprentice on their projects, progress and targets moving forward. It will also present a great opportunity for you to see where they’re at in terms of being End-Point Assessment ready with one eye on the Gateway meeting ahead.
