What Business Owners Need to Know Before Taking On an Apprentice
Taking on an apprentice might seem like a great way for you to get someone on board within your business. A new starter you can train from scratch and really get involved with moulding to benefit both themselves and your business. And with the government helping with the cost of training, it seems like a win-win on the surface.
Apprenticeships are real jobs; they help real people earn and develop skills for a career they can pursue once qualified. It involves on-the-job training and formal training in college or off the job, too. And they bring many benefits to both employers and those embarking on apprenticeships.
But before you dive in and take on board an apprentice, here are some points you need to consider.
Funding and Costs
If you are a small business with a wage bill under £3 million annually, you won’t pay the Apprenticeship Levy, and the government will pay 95% of the costs while you pay the remaining 5% (the government is moving towards 100% costs as of August 2026). For most apprenticeships, this will equate to a few hundred pounds over the course of the programme, not thousands. However, it does not cover the apprentice’s wage bill. You must pay for that. Currently, the national minimum wage is set at £8 for under-19s, £10.85 for 18-20-year-olds, and £ 12.71 for those aged 21 and over.
Then there are the indirect costs, such as the time your existing staff spend supervising or answering questions and checking work, which in the early stages of an apprenticeship can be considerable.
Your Legal Obligations
You will be required to treat your apprentice like any other employee. This means contracts, payslips, holiday entitlement, and full employment rights immediately.
You are also required to have a written apprenticeship agreement in place before they start, and the training provider will also need a commitment statement signed by you, the apprentice and themselves.
On top of this, there are health and safety considerations that, on the surface, are the same as those for every other employee. But for those in more physical trades or environments, apprentices may require more supervision or training on certain tasks, e.g., working at height or around chemicals, until they are fully trained.
You also cannot employ someone on an apprenticeship as a probationary period and let them go at the end of it. There are specific rules governing dismissal and early termination of an apprenticeship that must meet certain requirements and follow specific processes.
Training Responsibilities
The off-the-job training aspect of apprenticeships can often catch employers off guard. Apprentices must spend at least 6 hours per week on off-the-job training. This is a legal requirement, not a consideration. And it has to be recorded.
It doesn’t necessarily have to happen at a college, although many do; it can include structured learning at work, shadowing with a specific learning objective or attending internal training sessions. Whatever it is needs to be documented, and it has to be genuine training, not just doing the job.
You will need to provide evidence of this, and if it’s not happening consistently, it will create problems at the end-point assessment that can delay or jeopardise the qualification.
Additional Resources You Can Rely On
There are numerous employers across the country who have worked with and developed employees through the apprenticeship phase, and they’ll be the first to tell you it’s not all smooth sailing, and it doesn’t come without challenges.
Before you dive into taking on an apprentice, it can be a good idea to ask around local circles and your network to find others who are doing this or have done it before, so you can ask questions and get real-life advice and support.
And when you do this, make sure it’s sector-specific. It’s not as good to get advice from those with administrative apprenticeships if you’re training electricians. As for the most part, the help they give you won’t translate well to industry-specific issues.
However, widening the net means you can find support from people like Ettan Bazil, who has years of experience in his sector and champions apprenticeships, meaning he has guidance from both sides of the coin for you to rely on.
Managing Expectations
You need to make sure you are aligned with your expectations for your apprentice and with what they’re realistically expected to do and know at certain points in the training.
This is where a lot of frustration can build. Especially if you expect them to be further along than they are or if they’re not picking up as quickly as expected.
You need to remember they’re not a junior employee who knows the basics. A lot of the time, they’re kids fresh from school who need to learn everything. And the pace and capacity for learning will vary greatly.
As the employer, you need to take the time to understand what training looks like, what progress you can expect, and at what time points. Then you can set clear, achievable competency milestones for them to work towards.
This allows you both to be on the same page, helps you catch issues before they become real problems, and ensures your apprentice is on the right track.
Retention
The national apprenticeship dropout rate is around 40%. And those who drop out will do so within the first six months, and the reasons will typically be the same. It’s the job not being what they expected, or feeling unsupported, or the environment not matching what was sold to them.
Again, having clear expectations about what job role you expect them to undertake is essential. You cannot move the goal posts, so pinning this down clearly at the interview stage is essential. From here, you need a well-structured first few weeks, so both you and the apprentice can raise concerns early on.
Something that’s also worth mentioning here is that if you’re paying above the minimum wage or national average for the role, this will be more enticing for apprentices to stick with you and persevere with their training.
This is a collaborative post.
