Many thanks to all the apprentice employers we work with who provided us with feedback regarding our training and services. We greatly value your input as it helps us continually drive improvements and ensures we’re offering you and your apprentice the best possible service.
What you said about your apprentice:
Overall, the results reveal that apprenticeships are not just about value for money, they are also having a real impact on supporting business growth and profitability.
– 97% said their apprentice helps grow a future workforce.
– 91% stated that their apprentice adds value to the business.
– 89% highlighted that their apprentice helps increase business productivity.
– 79% agreed that employing an apprentice is a cost effective way to recruit staff.
– 60% felt that their apprentice comes up with exciting new ideas that have a positive impact on the business.
– 32% said their apprentice brings in new business or open up new opportunities.
– 31% reported that their apprentice helps generate extra revenue/income.
What you said about The Apprentice Academy – things you liked:
– The large majority of respondents considered the service and support The Apprentice Academy offers as very good overall and would recommend us to another business.
– 87% rated the support and information our Account Managers provide as excellent.
– 75% rated our preparation Bootcamps as very good or excellent.
– 63% rated the Career Coach support as very good or excellent.
Areas you felt we needed to improve upon and what we’re doing to address this:
While over half of employers felt that they are ‘extremely’ or ‘very well informed’ of their apprentice progress, 44% stated we could do better.
Action: To improve our eight week review process, to get greater involvement of the employer, to provide clearer information and agree more challenging targets, to give access and training to employers on OneFile (the apprentices e-portfolio).
Just under 40% of employers stated that the Apprentice Performance Development (APD) scoring tool (which measures the ‘8 attitudes to success’) helps accelerate learning extremely or very well. This is great news but our aim is to ensure that all our employers benefit from the APD model.
Action: To review the APD system to make it easier to understand and to allocate scores, and to go into greater depth at reviews to enable the employer and apprentice to identify ways of demonstrating improvements. We have also added a ‘confidence log’ so learners can discuss the areas where they feel confident and where further support is necessary.
The feedback on our Accelerated Development Workshops revealed that more clarification is required on what exactly the workshop covered and how beneficial they are for the workplace.
These workshops are unique to The Apprentice Academy and have been designed to inspire the apprentices to achieve their full potential and add significant value by focusing on the development of future skills and attributes.
Action: To provide more information about each workshop at the beginning of the programme including joining instructions, an employer information sheet that details the content and expected outcomes of each session, as well as any preparation or post coursework. There will also be tips on how employers can help their apprentice prepare for the sessions.
Other services
Around half of respondents expressed an interest in receiving more information on our Milk Round service, which gives access to the best apprentice talent early; and the management and leadership training courses we offer. Your Account Manager will be speak to you about this in more detail, but if you have any questions in the meantime, please call us on 0161 200 1673.
For more information or to request a copy of our survey findings, please email ag@theapprenticeacademy.co.uk.
* Findings are from survey to 33 employers taken in December 2015.