Top recruitment tips to help you find your ideal apprentice

Looking to fill a skills gap in your team? Have you ever considered taking on an apprentice? We spoke to our recruitment team here at Parenta to find out what top tips they'd recommend for employers looking to hire a new apprentice.

Provide your recruiter with all of your requirements for an apprentice at your setting. This will help them find a candidate who’s tailored to your needs, getting the vacancy filled in a much shorter space of time.
Allow time to communicate with recruiters. Their role is to help you! If a suitable CV is sent over and then you don’t respond for two weeks, the candidate may have found a position elsewhere.
Prepare a full job description with duties for recruiters. You can also give information about the ethos of your nursery, too. This helps candidates get a feel for your setting and what they would be doing before attending an interview.
Ask candidates to prepare or research something prior to interview. An example could be to think of an activity to do with children or to research what safeguarding means. This will help you to see if the candidate has made time to prepare for their interview.
Hold a trial for your potential apprentice. This will help you see if the candidate interacts well with the children and uses their initiative. However, let the apprentice know what you’re looking to see as many may be nervous!
Make sure you give feedback to your recruiter, as this means they can ensure that the candidate is able to improve in the future when applying to other roles (and they can then use this to find more suitable candidates for you).
Discuss expectations. Young apprentices might not know what’s expected of them in a workplace such as dress code, punctuality and attitude. Talk to your apprentice regularly about how they’re getting on in the first few weeks and give them feedback.
Set a probation period and make it clear to your apprentice. If things aren’t going to work out with your apprentice, you’ll normally know in the first few weeks!
Arrange an enrolment meeting onto the course with your training provider in a timely manner. This will help your apprentice to understand what apprenticeship they’re completing. Make sure to check through the paperwork thoroughly so that nothing is missed, meaning that the signup process is quick and easy.
Lastly, remember that you can ask the recruitment team at Parenta for information about apprenticeships if there’s anything you’re unsure about. There are always changes to apprenticeships including the new 10% contribution, grants and apprenticeship minimum wage – just ask us if you’re not sure.