There have been a number of articles cropping up recently about apprentices and graduates \u2013 which is the most valuable? Are apprentices making a comeback? A degree or an apprenticeship \u2013 what is best?\u00a0 The way I see it, today\u2019s graduates are the apprentices of twenty years ago. Let me explain\u2026<\/p>\n
Until around twenty years ago, school leavers were encouraged to secure apprenticeships or vocational training of some kind. Then, the focus changed and school leavers have since been relentlessly funnelled into Higher Education. Now, with the rising cost of university fees, more and more students are considering pursuing vocational pathways. The role that today\u2019s graduates assume when they start in their first graduate role is essentially the role an apprentice took on twenty odd years ago. But times have changed and it\u2019s important to not get confused by the labels. There are so many different levels of apprenticeships emerging now and while a higher degree-level apprenticeship may have to compete with Graduate Schemes, entry-level apprenticeship programs offer a whole different breadth of perspective for organizations.<\/p>\n
The question businesses should really be asking is not \u2018do we want a graduate and\/or an apprentice?\u2019 but \u2018where do we want our business to be in five years?\u2019<\/p>\n
This \u2018reverse engineer\u2019 approach is something we always ask our clients to think about when it comes to recruiting graduates. \u2018Where do the graduates you are recruiting NOW, need to be in 3 years\u2019 time?\u2019 Depending upon their answer, we will consider the skills required for this \u2018projected\u2019 role and source similar skills or hints of these skills in the graduates we screen. It is likely that these skills won\u2019t be fully realized yet, but we spot the potential now and then use the Discovery OPEN Program, to enhance their learning and grow their talent within the business. And it works! 74%<\/strong> of graduates who have taken part in our OPEN program since 2009<\/strong> are still working within the business we placed them with.<\/p>\n Developing your graduate talent increases your chances of success seven-fold. So imagine the return if you could get to your graduates earlier. A common complaint among employers is that graduates of today lack practical skills. How can we ensure graduates gain more practical exposure before <\/strong>entering into the world of work? And on the flip side, how can we help apprentices to gain more theoretical knowledge?<\/p>\n For graduates, offer industrial placements For apprentices, identify training courses<\/strong><\/p>\n For the more \u2018hands-on\u2019 apprentice, do some research into appropriate training courses. Understanding the theory behind their day-to-day work will have a great impact when applied to practical tasks. You\u2019ll find their rate of progression will be accelerated once they start to compile the theoretical tools to complement their practical abilities.<\/p>\n If we are to return to the question of graduates or apprentices, my response would be, take both! Both graduates and apprentices have a wealth of different skills to offer and if we combine these skills and encourage the sharing of knowledge between the two camps, the impact these individuals could have on a business is boundless.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s not a question of \u2018either or\u2019 or the one \u2018versus\u2019 the other – a combination is the way forward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There have been a number of articles cropping up recently about apprentices and graduates \u2013 which is the most valuable? Are apprentices making a comeback? A degree or an apprenticeship \u2013 what is best?\u00a0 The way I see it, today\u2019s graduates are the apprentices of twenty years ago. Let me explain\u2026 Until around twenty years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>Industrial placements are a great way for \u2018fact-filled\u2019 graduates to build practical experience early on. And the bonus is, industrial placements are not only good for graduates, they are great for businesses too. Industrial placements form an integral part of many of our clients\u2019 long term succession planning. These placement students could form all or part of your next graduate intake \u2013 not only do they already understand the essence of your business; they are comfortable in your working environment and have already started developing the necessary skills to succeed in your organization. Instead of starting from scratch, you can pick up right where you left off.<\/p>\n