Engaging apprentices after Covid 19
National Apprenticeship Week has rolled round again, but this time the world looks a very different place for a lot of businesses. Widespread uncertainty has called a halt or at least a severe delay to many early talent and apprenticeship schemes. At Cohesion Early Talent we have seen a number of businesses begin to set the wheels in motion again, keen not to miss the boat on the best graduates and apprentices coming through later in 2021.
Cohesion are passionate about delivering the best talent for your business but also about delivering outstanding candidate experience. A good candidate experience naturally leads to increased candidate engagement and high candidate engagement leads to decreased drop offs, increased retention, smoother onboarding, the list goes on! We released a number of bitesize videos on this topic of candidate experience and engagement in a Post Covid world which can be accessed here.
There has been an unmistakable impact on apprenticeship schemes due to the pandemic in a huge number of ways; schools are using careers leads to conduct Covid testing drastically cutting their available time, many schools are finding it difficult to share career information with students remotely, careers events that would usually be scheduled this week are not taking place (or are happening online when school aged children are suffering online fatigue). We are currently involved in an outreach programme for Virgin Media, contacting schools whilst they are in midst of remote learning.
The government Kickstart Scheme Grant Funding is still available to businesses who are create new placements for 16 to 24 year olds who are receiving Universal Credit. With a lot of school leavers considering apprenticeships over a remote learning University experience, now is an excellent time to consider your plan for engaging apprentices in 2021.
If you would like to find out more about how we can support your business get in touch today.
We will also be holding a number of events throughout the year – the first of which is mid April. Sign up to our mailing list below to be notified of our events.
