Why Roofing Apprenticeships should be part of your business

March 31, 2021 | General

Apprenticeships are at the heart of the government’s aim to help employers grow by finding workers readily equipped with a range of relevant skills. Apprenticeships are also an ideal solution for teens and young adults looking to enter a trade or career through an alternative route (bypassing traditional college or higher education studies).

Almost every line of work can benefit from offering apprenticeships, however, trade industries including construction, electrical, plumbing, and roofing are some of the most common.

Employer Benefits

Create a Home-Grown Team

Many hands-on trades, including roofing rely on word-of-mouth and returning customers to create new business opportunities. Because of this, employers are better positioned to succeed and grow their business with a home-grown team who have honed their craft over time.

Reduces employee turnover

Taking on an apprentice is a cost-effective way of growing your workforce and increasing your employee retention rate. By taking on apprenticeships and helping them grow into the role, they are more likely to be committed to that same company that helped them develop, therefore feeling comfortable and satisfied to stay for a long period of time working for your business.

Developing your own skills as a roofing employer

Taking on apprentices, you take on a training role. Therefore in training apprentices from scratch and starting with the basics, you can work your way through each skill whilst developing your own trainer skills, whilst perfecting any specific areas of the trade that you have felt need more work on. This will then provide your organisation with all the skills needed to finish a job to the highest standards possible and reach your goals as a business under each project.

Strengthening and growing your brand as an employer

Any company that takes on apprentices and trains them up successfully is seen as a forward thinking, worthwhile brand to work for that can develop its employees skills and trade effectively. This boosts your businesses attraction rates, becoming both a top choice for prospective employees as well for those starting out in the business and looking for a well rounded apprenticeship to undertake.

Apprenticeship levy

What is an apprenticeship levy?

An apprenticeship levy is a tax put to UK employers which is provided to ensure employers can fund apprenticeship programmes and training. The levy is paid by large employers with a pay bill over £3 million, where they pay 0.5% of their total annual bill. Smaller businesses pay just 5% of the cost of the apprenticeship and the government pays the rest.

Employer gains from the levy

In order to pay for training, employers are able to reclaim their apprenticeship levy contributions as digital vouchers. This also comes along with a 10% government top up to ensure the funds are suitable for the apprenticeship training program offered by the employer.

These vouchers can be used for training and assessment as well as progressing employees into a higher level apprenticeship that teaches new skills. However, these cannot be used for any wages, management costs or the initial apprenticeship set up costs. These vouchers expire after 24 months, and can be split across connected or partnering companies providing the same apprenticeship programmes.

Why Apprenticeships?

In any business, hiring apprentices is a great strategic move for multiple reasons. Employing apprentices, productivity is majorly increased for the business as a whole, both long and short term. As well as this, apprentices also help increase competitiveness. Industry research has shown that 77% of employers agreed that taking on apprenticeships has made their business more attractive to both customers and potential employees, increasing revenue and their brands reputation. Apprenticeships can also be tailored to the needs of your personal business. This means that individual needs can be met, by training up your employees in specific trades or skills. This also gives both yourself as an employer as well as the apprentice confidence in their improved knowledge as well as knowing that they have not picked up any bad habits from any other organisation and can go onto being a valued and skilled member of the team.