Youth Apprenticeships

While it will vary from organization to organization, hosting an apprentice will add additional responsibilities to your current staff responsibilities. Supervisors and mentors should plan on adding an additional 30 minutes to an hour each week to check in with apprentice(s), evaluate their needs and ensure that expectations are being met on both the business and apprentice side. Supervisors should also plan on more heavily supporting onboarding and offboarding at the beginning and end of an apprenticeship.

This might take the form of a conventional orientation program or merely a walk around the office, depending on the size of your company. After all, even though they may not be permanent employees, they’ll be spending a great deal of time in your workplace. Give apprentices an overview of your organization; some companies give talks or hand out information about the company’s history, vision, mission, and services. Explain who does what and what the apprentice duties will be.  Introduce him or her to coworkers and give them a complete tour of the facility.

Making an apprentice at home in the office is your first step to bringing him or her back. In many programs, the first year of the apprentice at your organization will consist of a rotational program across different business units to determine interest and best fit.

That should sound obvious, but you would be surprised at how many companies stick apprentices in an out-of-the-way room or transfer them from desk to desk. That sends a potent message that you don’t want to send: Apprentices aren’t important; we don’t want you here. Give the apprentice a desk and show them where to find needed supplies.

If you intimidate your apprentices into silence, you could miss out on valuable contributions to your projects – or warnings about impending problems. In addition to the tools to get work done, apprentices need meaningful assignments. After all, that’s why you brought them on. Having them work on well-defined projects gives them clear opportunities for success and contributes meaningfully to your business.

This does not mean to watch their every move, but do make sure you know what is happening in their daily tasks. Watch for signs that the apprentice is confused or bored. As often as silence means that an apprentice is busy, it also could mean that he or she is confused and shy about telling you so.

It is easy to be uncomfortable in a workplace full of strangers who all know each other. See whether the apprentice is trying to do anything that requires someone else’s input. Make sure that the work is taking precedence over web browsing or texting friends. Paying attention early helps you head off problems and bad habits.

• Informal Feedback shows up as comments or a light-hearted nudge. When using informal feedback be clear with your intent. The more direct, the more likely the student will perceive this to be an area of focus. Positive feedback should be given freely. Areas of growth should be presented in a private setting where the learner is not embarrassed. Feedback should be delivered as often as possible to encourage the student to continue to develop.
• Formal Feedback should be prepared and delivered in a private meeting to discuss the apprentice’s strengths and areas for growth. Use specific examples of behavior whenever possible so learners have clear ideas of what areas need improvement (and as importantly what they are doing well).

Remember those goals you outlined before? A few weeks after the apprenticeship begins, see how well you and your apprentice are meeting those goals. Evaluation processes differ. It might be as formal as written evaluations every three weeks, or as informal as occasional lunches with the apprenticeship coordinator and/or the apprentice’s mentor. Some companies have the apprentice evaluate the experience and the company as well. Progress monitoring should be aligned to the organization’s culture and needs.

As a bonus, these evaluations will be handy later if you decide to interview a former apprentice for full‐time work, or to publicize how successful your program has been. Maintaining program popularity will require hard evidence that your organization is getting a return on its investment. 

Through this process organization’s can determine if apprentices are leaving the company having had a good experience, and provides valuable feedback to managers for program planning in following years. In addition to qualitative measures, several quantitative measures should be adopted. Some common measures include the number of apprentices that become full‐time employees; repeat requests for apprentices from managers; and growing numbers of apprentice applicants. To successfully measure your own program outcome, you should return to the stated program goals, and address those outcomes. 

With the job market experiencing a dearth of qualified employees, it only makes sense to investigate early those quality high school, community college, technical school and college students whom you can bring back later. Take on apprentices now and you’ll have a competitive advantage in recruiting the best workers–you’ll already be known to the employees you want most. 

New workers will already be trained for your workplace and loyal to your company, lowering training time, recruiting costs and turnover rates. You’ll build a reputation that will pay off with students, colleges and the community. And your company will save money while benefiting from the input of talented, enthusiastic, innovative people.

With all these advantages, you might find that you can’t afford not to do apprenticeships.