There’s an app for that
Why applications for apprenticeships are tough
Hello!
Thank you for joining me, I’m so glad you’re here.
This weekend has been all about IKEA flatpack building. Did you know that you can do click and collect to local hubs with them for free? At £40 for delivery, it certainly makes things a little cheaper.
I had wondered if I should set up services to build IKEA stuff for people, figuring that I could undercut the official price that IKEA itself charges, and perhaps little old ladies would want a woman to help, but after being completely challenged by my second item in particular, I figured I’d better stick to the day job…
There are quite a few new faces around here this week, thanks to Kyle Campbell giving me a shout out over on LinkedIn - thank you Kyle! He’s a brilliant higher education marketer and writes one of my favourite newsletters so do go check him out.
If this is your first time here, and you like what you see, do hit the subscribe button to stick around!
I started my early careers career back in 2016, when I took up a role in a now collapsed apprenticeship company. I was an Apprentice Intake Executive, and my job was to go around all the local schools taking about apprenticeships, then getting apprentice candidates onto my books, train them in interviews and CVs, then match them with jobs that my colleague had brought in. Often, I was bringing in the candidates quicker than we could place them so I ended up on the phone cold calling companies, attending networking events and pitching the wonders of apprenticeships to anyone who would listen.
Back in 2016 it was a special time in apprenticeships. There was a lot of innovation, and the novelty of it all made it quite an exciting field to be in. As apprenticeships were still small-scale, things were quite orderly, and all roles had to be published on the government’s apprenticeship website. It was also very easy to get out into schools, and I would do at least a couple of visits a week, as well as setting up camp in the job centre to talk to people, too.
Though there weren’t as many standards (apprenticeship-talk for courses) available back then, I feel it was more streamlined and understandable.
These days, there are still some smaller specialist apprenticeship companies, but there are equally some massive ones about, too - the likes of QA, Multiverse and even The Open University. You also have local colleges which have a wide range of apprenticeships available on many people’s doorsteps.
But I feel in many ways it’s a lot harder for people to get a good understanding of apprenticeships and what is available to them. People going around schools talking about apprenticeships tend to be unbiased organisations pushing the concept of apprenticeships, which is very important, but can sometimes give students an unrealistic expectation as to what is on offer, and more importantly what is available locally. Sure, there is probably photography apprenticeships out there somewhere, but will there be any in deepest rural Suffolk? Probably not.
Apprenticeships also no longer have to be listed on the government’s website. It is a BALL ACHE to use as an apprentice recruiter. The process to upload the vacancy and have it approved makes making an application via Workday look like a walk in the park. So I can sympathise with organisations that just skip that and advertise their apprentice roles on their own website, and via he normal channels.
But what are normal channels? Some companies use Indeed. Some use LinkedIn. Some use CV Library. Some use Otta. Being on the job market these days requires a job seeker to be present and active in all of these places - can we expect students to know to do all this?
I’ve also noticed recently how stressful LinkedIn has become for job seekers.
LinkedIn has started being a lot more aggressive in how it pushes job seekers to buy Premium. Things like the number of applicants listed on each job post, and comments about what skills might be missing from someone’s profile are all geared to drive anxiety and worry, and push them to subscribe and give them an “equal chance”.
There’s even a feature now where applicants can mark a role as their “top choice” to stand out.
What this all amasses to is an environment where students don’t know where to find apprenticeships, don’t know how to search for them, there is not easy way to get a view on what is available, and thanks to the current aggressive job market, even just starting a search can cause anxiety.
Application guidance is one element of this, but labour market intelligence is another big piece. I’ve done countless school assemblies on “50% of you will do jobs that don’t even exist yet”, and info from LinkedIn this week show that is happening already (psst if you work in careers guidance, that link is a good one!!) So how do students even know what to commit to with an apprenticeship?
I don’t like working through a problem without trying to suggest solutions and I have to admit this one needs a lot of work. There really needs to be better national resources, a one-stop-shop that all employers use, even if it is the gov’s really awful website. I also think that there aren’t nearly enough people going into schools to talk about what they offer to school leavers. Just because apprenticeship roles can be easily filled doesn’t mean that there’s no need to speak to local students about them.
Since the apprenticeship levy was brought in in 2017, there are fewer level 2 (GCSE level) opportunities available, and the higher and degree level apprenticeships are clustered around larger cities and more affluent places [Sutton Trust]. If it was easier for large organisations to donate their unspent levy money to smaller organisations, perhaps SMEs would be even more encouraged to take on apprentices, creating more roles in rural areas?
Mostly, it would be brilliant for as many people as possible to get behind National Apprenticeship Week which is coming up in February. Take part in talks, hear from employers, learn how we can build a better apprenticeship landscape, and come jin in with discussions about how we can take this already great thing and make it more accessible to all.
Because do we really want ambition youngsters’ first experience of the working world to be the grim frustration of the job market?
Last week I asked you if your employer aligns with your values, and three kind souls voted.
I’m glad to see that 2/3 of you do have employers who align with your values…I wonder if this ratio would maintain if there were more people involved?
I also asked on LinkedIn if gen z candidates were to ask values based questions in an interview, how would people feel. I think the answers are very much a reflection of who in my network is motivated to vote, but I do wonder how many “regular” hiring managers would be up for this style of question.
Links
Gen z are making fun of the corporate “accent” (though it includes phrases such as “blue sky thinking” which apparently are very confusing to young employees) [Business Insider]. Corporate Erin was mentioned in the article, and for the unfamiliar, she’s a real treat [TikTok].
Gen z are also having a hard time keeping up with the 9-5 as well, it seems [New York Post]. A few weeks ago we had the lady go viral on TikTok for getting overwhelmed with her 9-5, and it seems to be a growing trend. I spotted a few posts on Reddit today of gen z-ers asking if it ever gets better.
I was quite intrigued by this video of a young woman asking her followers if her clothing was work appropriate or not [TikTok]. I think senior colleagues working hybrid remote means that younger employees don’t get to observe as much, but also I guess all industries have different standards so it’s hard to know when starting out. I used to run an activity in schools where I had 15 printed photos of outfits and I brought students to the front of class and asked them to rank them in order or most to least work appropriate. It went down a treat, and I wonder if any of them think of it when they get ready for work now.
Sticking with TikTok, this video of experiences of black students at Cambridge was quite insightful!
Both my cats are glaring at me for being late with their bedtime, so I will have to leave it there.
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Until next week,
Charlotte