KEEPING YOUR APPRENTICE ON TRACK
Anthony Gray
By Anthony Gray, MIG Training
MY APPRENTICE IS FALLING BEHIND IN THEIR TRAINING. WHAT SHOULD I DO? A full time Hairdressing or Barbering apprenticeship can be an intense journey for each apprentice with 28 and 26 units to be completed respectively over a 36-month duration. When you take on an apprentice the issues you might experience can usually be grouped into one of three areas. You may experience issues with: • The apprentice themselves, as commitment, application and passion can ebb and flow like all working relationships over the duration of the apprenticeship. • Your college, also known as the registered training organisation (RTO). The RTO delivers the formal training and assessment to your apprentice. This may be a TAFE or private provider. • The Australian Apprenticeship Support Network (AASN) provider who would have supported you with the contractual sign up off the apprentice as well as providing mentoring support and the management of Commonwealth incentives. Managing progression is a critical part of the partnership between RTO, the employer and apprentice. As with all successful partnership’s communication is key. Your RTO will regularly discuss the progression of your apprentice with you. In my extensive experience working with employers communication around progression is critical. As an employer if you are not provided up to date feedback on how your apprentice is tracking you will feel like you have no control over the training, and this makes it impossible to manage and be on top of the relationship with the apprentice. It is important to note that if your apprentice or trainee is falling behind, there is an obligation for the employer and/or training organisation to notify your Australian Apprenticeship Support Network provider (AASN) or the state training authority to work through your obligations. Importantly though before things get to this point there are a number of things that can be done to help your apprentice navigate the difficult world of work and study. 58
Hair Biz Year 15 Issue 6
We recommend that you try to resolve the issue first by following a few simple steps. In fact, if your issue cannot be resolved on your own and you need help from your RTO or state training authority both organisations will ask what steps you’ve already taken to try and resolve things in order to tread as gently as possible. The steps include: Identifying the issue. Work out exactly what the issue is. Then express it in words that make it solvable. The best tip I can give is to focus on the issue not the emotion or the person. The pressure can be too much for many apprentices if they feel it is personal. Identifying causes, consequences and contributors. Identifying who or what is causing the issue, who is contributing to it, who is affected by it, and what the consequence are. Again, listening without judgement or debate is the best advice. For many apprentices this is the first-time in a position that carries responsibility and accountability so working through what has contributed to the difficulties, what impacts are felt and who is affected is a wonderful learning and teaching opportunity. Brainstorm solutions with all parties. Making a list of all the possible ways you could solve the issue is an important step. You’re looking for a range of possibilities, both sensible and some not so sensible. Even at this point the best tip I can give is to still avoid judgement or debate of the solutions your apprentice has put forward. Choose a solution. Look at the solutions in turn, assessing both the positives and negatives of each one. The solution you choose should be one that you can put into practice and that will solve the issue. Consult others if you can’t
find a solution you are both happy with. The beauty of this step is that by considering the pros before the cons of each suggested solution avoids your apprentice feeling criticised. Plan the details. Once you’ve agreed on a solution, plan exactly how it will work. To plan, you can ask these questions: • Who will do what? • When will they do it? • What is needed to put the solution into action? Finally, evaluate the solution Remember that you’ll need to give the solution time to work and note that not all solutions will work. Sometimes you’ll need to try more than one solution to find that which works best for both the business and the apprentice. To evaluate you can ask these questions: • What has worked well? • What hasn’t worked so well? • What could you do differently to improve the solution? In a perfect world every new apprentice to your business will hit all the benchmarks you set both practically and in terms of the formal training. The reality though is that the habits and daily routines that are required in order to juggle work, study and personal life need to be learnt, reinforced and supported over the apprenticeship journey. Where possible it pays to sometimes take a step back and reflect on the mentors and employers who provided the initial guidance on your own professional journey. This reflection reinforces how important you are in the life of your apprentice and how the payoff from your investment is significant and lifelong.
