SMEs are caught in a bind. On one hand, small business owners say they can’t find the skills they need. On the other, young people say they can’t find opportunities. As the voice of the talent, recruitment and staffing sector, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation sees both sides of this equation. We know there is no shortage of willingness – what’s missing is a clear and simple process that connects business demand with young people’s talents and interests. Apprenticeships should be more frequently used to put employers and school leavers together, as a practical and a brilliant first act of a young person’s career.
Yet too often, friction gets in the way of SMEs taking advantage of apprenticeships and other training solutions. That’s why we're proud to partner with the Edge Foundation’s Apprenticeships Work campaign – using REC polling to shine a light on the difficulties SMEs face in accessing existing support. As Edge’s report highlights, smarter system design should bring together all the resources available for employers to take on apprentices – from private sector recruiters to payments offered by government. In today’s labour market, talent isn’t a “nice to have”. Replacing a single employee can take nearly half a year and cost over £25,000, according to research from Brightmine. That means for SMEs, one wrong hire can derail a business plan. Half of all jobs are now classified as high-skilled, while generational trends mean fewer young people enter the labour market and more older workers step away, meaning the squeeze on skills is only tightening. Apprenticeships give SMEs a way to manage this risk – building loyalty and developing skills in-house. Yet we know from our members that complexity and capacity issues often hold smaller firms back.
Navigating the apprenticeship system can be a labyrinth, judging skills needs and standards is opaque and business owners fear they don’t have the bandwidth to support new entrants, especially school leavers. Too often, building a long-term skills pipeline is ceded to short-term pressures. This is where recruiters help. They are closest to the labour market, always in close contact with candidates and employers, and they know what motivates people to join - and stay in - jobs. Our sector places 1 million people in permanent roles every year. Like anchor institutions, they are deeply embedded in the talent ecosystem of local economies and sectors. Every day, they are making great work and training happen.
Developing formal and informal partnerships with local educational institutions, producing resources to help schools open up engineering pathways for girls and running free career guidance sessions for Level 3 school leavers are just some of the brilliant things our members have done in the past few months. Ultimately, recruiters are partners for your firm’s most important asset: your talent. They can assess the skills base you possess and where you need new talent, help to design apprenticeship roles and adverts that are realistic and attractive and prepare apprentices to thrive in a new workplace. Recruiters also bring insight from how other businesses are making apprenticeships work, sharing lessons that a single SME may not have the time or reach to discover alone.
Apprenticeships work because talent matters. And when SMEs have the right support, they can work for every business.
Written by
Shazia Ejaz, Director of Communications, REC