Sharing the stage with Boris

Sharing the stage with Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, last week was quite a daunting prospect but as I’d been asked to talk about how Apprenticeships have helped our business over the last two years, I gave it a shot!  The event was the WorldSkills London 2011 Summit where 200,000 attendees from over 50 countries converged on the Excel in London.  Fortunately Boris and I were only speaking to a couple of hundred HR and business professionals about the Apprenticeship programme, but I must admit my nerves were a little bit on edge as I waited for the event to start.

I’m told my presentation went well – and at least nobody seemed to fall asleep – and I received some good questions and comments from the audience in the panel discussion afterwards.  It helps that apprenticeships are a subject very close to my heart (and one that I know a bit about).  Back at the end of 2009 when we were struggling to find either good, experienced consultants or promising graduates with the right work ethic, I heard about the new government Apprenticeship programme and wondered whether it could work for a recruitment consultancy.    After a bit of digging, I was able to identify a training partner who helped us establish a tailor-made framework and we hired our first apprentices in January 2010.  Since then, we have hired 14 young Londoners as apprentices, and 7 of them are now full 360 degree recruitment consultants.   I forecast that, come the end of 2011, our apprentices will have sourced nearly £900,000 in fees since we started in January 2010.  More importantly, they have breathed new energy into our business and underpinned a healthy growth within our Technology and Analytics market sectors.

Most importantly, the programme has given opportunities to young people who would not have got into our industry through the traditional graduate trainee route – and to me, the transformation of seeing raw, enthusiastic but unpolished youngsters mature, learn, develop and grow over the last two years has made a difference to my job satisfaction.

Since launching our apprenticeship programme, I am now a passionate advocate of creating training and development opportunities for talented individuals in our industry.  I am an Ambassador for the Apprenticeship Network (AAN) and have given presentations to nearly 100 recruitment businesses in co-ordination with APSCo, City and Guilds and the GLA.  Since we started at the beginning of 2010, I understand that over thirty recruitment companies have started their own apprenticeship programmes.

And hence why I’m writing this blog.   I was asked by Azmat at the IOR to lend my experience to the organisation with a specific remit to cover Standards and Apprenticeships and will happily give advice and support to any Member interested in using the programme. Now is the time to start.  Current levels of youth unemployment, combined with University tuition fees, mean that bright young people are looking for new opportunities.  Apprenticeships give you a cost effective method to bring this new talent into your organisation to make you more competitive.