The Employer's Perspective

March 2018

The Employer’s Perspective Carla George (Warwick University) Abstract — This paper explains employers’ expectations and their perspectives regarding employing apprentices.

I. INTRODUCTION There are a variety of definitions for employability paid or unpaid work or set attributes towards gaining a place of employment. This area has been explored by A G Watts he has quoted a variety of text from S Knight and York relating to careful career planning and acquisition preparation for the world of work they also referenced interview skills as essential part of gaining employment.

The workplace has a procedure in place to capture the learner’s most preferred learning and this will be integrated through assessment practice and learning experience. The learners I have observed mostly learning through visual and listening through actions. These actions are incorporated into their own work practice and reflected throughout their apprenticeship.

The government are constantly looking for new innovative ways of promoting Apprenticeships. The skills gap comprises of lack of life long skills and less people with the require experience and education to meet the requirements for sustaining employment. The skills gap is a very difficult area as everyone’s skills set are different. To address this requires self-assessment and the determination towards improving the areas required to be successful in employment. Currently the government are addressing the employer’s demands.

Employers are willing to employ apprentices as a means for of cost savings and ease of recruitment.

EMPLOYERS EXPECTATIONS The employers are willing to allow for the learner to attend sessions outside of work. However, the employers I have worked are hesitant towards because of the nature of the business. It is important that employers are aware that off the job training is essential part of the apprenticeship otherwise this can also affect the customer relationship. In my experience, I discuss the importance of the off-job training and the procedures where training cannot be carried out in the workplace due to exam regulations.

S Billet’s concern is that the workplace may not provide a clear understanding to learners of why all tasks are carried out in the manner this may cause a slight problem for learners not all organizations will think mutually on this and they might provide different methods down to lack of expertise, different employees are socially introverts they like working by themselves some of them may not have the time to apply guided learning to learners and are often left by themselves to figure things out by reading manuals or researching on the internet.

Reading S Billets article there are a few terminologies he uses “Guided Apprenticeship Learning” this refers to interaction involving mentoring and learning with the participant allowing independent learning. S Billet explains that this strategy is referred to as situated learning within the workplace that involves as explained above scaffolding, coaching, modelling, and fading.

S Billet also mentioned that the workplace is used as the focus for the apprentice’s learning as they will have guidance from their supervisors and they will be focused on the activities within their job role. P Hager also explains that the workplace also provides opportunities towards authentic or informal learning and a variety of transferable skills that are acquired using existing knowledge and applying this to acquire new knowledge in a workplace setting. P Hager explains other factors that are taken into consideration he also uses similar explanations as S Billet such as planning, technologies, problem solving, teamworking and communication.

Employers prefer guided learning and experimental learning on job and off job experience to assess their current level of experience. Due to employers demand they recruit apprentices with an appropriate level of ability and to ensure that they can adopt to changes and current procedures.

March 2018

Small organizations have the scope for experimental learning down to lack of corporate procedures they tend to move away from this as they solely believe to accomplish their objectives is down to self-learning rather than using the black box. The company ensures that they employ those that are multi-skilled and are willing to progress forward. Barbara Levitt and James G March advised however there are pitfalls with this as this type of learning strategy is successful for those that are specialized and those that may not have this type of experience will stumble.

They also mention that organizations will favor a new procedure over the previous one that has been successful in the pass causing inadequacies. These issues are often the case within organizations as there are at time are disputes amongst employees on how to carryout procedures and coming to an understanding and a decision. This often decided without intervention and most of the time forced changed is imposed upon the organization.

However, there are pitfalls with this as this type of learning strategy is successful for those that are specialized and those that may not have this type of experience will stumble. They also mention that organizations will favor a new procedure over the previous one that has been successful in the pass causing inadequacies. These issues are often the case within organizations as on occasions there are disputes amongst employees on how to carryout procedures and coming to an understanding a decision. This is often decided without intervention and most of the time forced changed is imposed upon the organization.

Fuller A, Unwin L explains within their research that they collected evidence within three companies using both expansive and restrictive approaches. They compared results from company A, B and C and concluded that company A and B didn’t benefit from the expansive approach as they preferred the restrictive approach even though the apprentices finish within the required time they were unwilling to try innovative approaches towards learning development.

Currently apprenticeships are undergoing a change in practice and procedures where the government have emphasized 100% employer’s involvement in the apprentices learning.

Taylor A carried out a similar study on high school apprentices discussing their learning strategy their experience related to their experience within the learning centre where they found it very limited and often found themselves in a “catch 22” situation where they had to work to tighter deadlines so they are times felt under pressured and the learning was quite limited as they were focused on passing the exam only.

Apprenticeships will always have continuous gaps in their practice the government always stresses well balance between employers and training providers to provide the apprentices with a good structured opportunity towards their learning development.

CONCLUSION Employers and practitioners need to be aware of the apprentices’ learning needs when trying to establish the appropriate support towards their development. Overall the workplace can be utilized as a learning tool with the appropriate support and tools provided to ensure the learner succeeds within their apprenticeship.

REFERENCES Morgan M Gray D (2001) Modern Apprenticeships: Filling the skills gap [1]

[2] Experienced Based Learning Lee Andresen, David Boud and Ruth Cohen (2001) [3] Taylor A- Expansive Learning through High School Apprenticeships (2000)