I have been offered an Apprentise; do I want one?

[KatyMac]

I'm not really sure

I am recruiting atm, but have traditionally recruited older people, generally ones with children.

17yo (I think I'd pay more than they suggest tbh) ;not completely convinced

Are there great advantages?

Do you have to provide training as well?
I have apprentice veterinary nurses who I have to spend 3 hours per week actively teaching as well as monitoring their nursing progress logs and doing weekly tutorials.

Hmm - the connexions lady hasn't rung me back

I think she does 1 or 2 days at college

Ask whether she has to do an NVQ portfolio in addition to going to college. If she does have to do a portfolio will you have to become an A1 assessor to assess the portfolio - this would be the normal way.
I do pay more the peanuts recommended amount, but less than I would pay a non-apprentice as the training has a value.

I am currently looking for an Apprentice to employ, as I think the long-term benefits will be good for our company. It will be good to have someone who you can 'mould' to fit - of course there are pro's/con's - experience vs training from scratch etc, but I think on the whole it should be positive in the long run even if it is more/harder work to begin with. Studies have shown that it also increases loyalty to the employer.
The NMW for Apprentices is £2.50/hr including when they are at college, but most employers (including us) will pay quite a bit more than this!

So I have to pay them to attend college

(alters spreadsheet)

Portfolio

Yes, but my apprentice, for example, will only be going to college 1 day/week for 10 weeks. Ours will be on a salary rather than an hourly rate anyway, and it's only like day-release. It still works out cheaper because you generally pay apprentice's less to take account of the studying time and the lack of experience.

What I think you have to take into account is that this person probably hasn't worked before - so everything from how to answer the phone to how to write a professional email will need to be taught.

Having said that, chances are they are much more at home with technology than an older person, will be enthusiastic to learn new things and pick up stuff quickly.

My advice would be to make sure you do a very thorough interview checking reading/spelling as well as exam results etc.

I work in a college that provides apprenticeships. KatyMac you may not have to assess as we have trained assessors who visit the workplace to assess. As long as you keep providing work and help him/her to meet the criteria s/he needs to meet you shouldn't have to do anymore than supervise them.

If you know which level you can get an idea of things they need to evidence here however this is the OCR spec, there are a number of others including edexcel.

Hope that helps a bit...

The training provider wants me to employ her for 40 hr week

I'm only recruiting for max of about 18-20

So I don't think it will work, which is a shame