Apprenticeships give people the opportunity to explore different options regarding the workplace and their professional future. They can give young people a good idea of exactly what it is that they might like to do. At the same time, the can work for the companies providing the apprenticeships as they provide working hands even if they are for a short amount of time.
Every country has differences in their policies regarding apprenticeships. There is a common base of course but there are things that can be rather different from time to time. Due to the fact that, nowadays a person can have an apprentice position pretty much all around the world, it is a good idea to know beforehand what you might find if you decide to travel to another county to accumulate an apprenticeship position. The problem that occurs most of the times is the fact that some people do not have the motivation needed in order to go ahead and try for an apprenticeship position.
The Institute of Entrepreneurship Development, through the implementation of the SERFA European Project, conducted various studies as well as a survey, trying to understand why young people do not engage in apprenticeships. The survey was carried out among 240 SMEs in eight partner countries to examine the motivation for SMEs’ engagement in apprenticeships, their experience of the scheme, the support they received and their needs to facilitate apprenticeship uptake.
According to the results of the survey, it was clear that businesses do not motivate apprentices and at the same time are not motivated to create apprenticeship positions. Various reasons hide behind this fact. Business owners believe that taking apprenticeships will not benefit the company. Others believe that an apprentice will not have enough time to learn the job before they have to go. The process of creating apprenticeship positions is long and difficult as well.
These are some of the main reasons as to why SMEs and bigger companies do not often engage in apprenticeships. Of course, these reasons are easy to counter. Only by taking a look at some businesses that have taken apprenticeships, one can understand how useful and profitable apprenticeships can be for a company.
The most important thing is that they are able to give working experience to young people. Most companies nowadays demand some sort of working experience in order to be able to hire a person. Apprenticeships can provide that. Due to the fact that an apprenticeship is usually not paid by the employer means that it is easier to do it in bigger companies that have a lot more experience to offer.
Apprenticeships are the backbone for every company. Teaching apprentices about the workplace and at the same time gaining strong minds and hands that can help your company evolve more and more.
