Chloe Smith: apprenticeships work for small businesses in Norwich

Following the successful launch of her youth unemployment campaign, Member of Parliament for Norwich North, Chloe Smith, has this week been out and about in Norwich to make the case to small businesses for taking on apprentices.

Since the launch, Chloe has been visiting businesses across Norwich to discuss their experiences with apprentices. Businesses have also been in touch with Chloe to discuss the campaign. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

On Friday, Chloe met with Wayne Crowe, director of www.ecogreenstore.co.uk. Chloe was keen to hear about his staff who have each already completed apprenticeships, or were currently enrolled as an apprentice.

In the coming weeks, Chloe will be encouraging other local small businesses to offer apprenticeship opportunities to young people.

Small businesses often feel that they lack the resources to offer an apprenticeship, or that hiring an apprentice will actually cost them money. This is not the case.

The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) lay out the benefits to small business of offering an apprenticeship scheme. Apprenticeships can help businesses across all sectors by helping them to harness the fresh new talent emerging from secondary and further education.

According to the NAS, UK businesses consider skills shortages and recruitment difficulties a bigger threat to performance than soaring oil prices and declining consumer spending, and more than a quarter of these rate this form of vocational training higher than any other qualification.

Apprenticeships help to ensure that the staff of a small business has the practical skills and qualifications it needs to grow and develop. The mixture of on and off job learning ensures they learn the skills that work best for small businesses.

Over 130,000 workplaces offer apprentice places because they understand the benefits that apprentices bring to their business – increased productivity, improved competitiveness and a committed and competent work-force.

Research by the NAS showed that:

• 77% of employers believe Apprenticeships make them more competitive;


• 76% say that Apprenticeships provide higher overall productivity;


• 80% feel that Apprenticeships reduce staff turnover;


• 83% of employers rely on their Apprenticeships programme to provide the skilled workers that they need for the future;


• Two-thirds of respondents believe that their Apprenticeship programme helps them fill vacancies more quickly, whilst


• 88% believe that Apprenticeships lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce;


• 59% report that training apprentices is more cost-effective than hiring skilled staff, with 59% believing that Apprenticeships lead to lower overall training costs and 53% feeling that they reduce recruitment costs;


• In terms of the return on investment linked to Apprenticeships, 41% say that their apprentices make a valuable contribution to the business during their training period, while a further third (33%) report that apprentices add value within their first few weeks (or even from Day One);


• 57% report a high proportion of their apprentices going on to management positions within the company;


• Over three-quarters of respondents expect apprenticeships to play a bigger part in their recruitment policy in the future.

Chloe commented:

“Apprenticeships work. Not just for young people but also for businesses across the city. I want to see small businesses in particular reap the benefits of an apprenticeship scheme.

“I am now hearing from more and more businesses who have had overwhelmingly positive experiences with their apprentices. And I am hearing from young people from across the city who are looking for these opportunities.

“I will continue to fight to ensure that better training opportunities are available for Norwich’s young people.”

Wayne Crowe, Director Eco Green Store commented:

"Apprentices bring exceptional value for money, some real energy into a business and the right ones have fantastic work ethics.  Our very first employees were apprentices who have stayed with us after completing their apprenticeships, and they now manage new apprentices.  

“If any business has toyed with the idea and not jumped in, give it a go it really is worth it.  They have made such a big difference to our small company we would not be here today without the help and energy apprentices bring.  

“The course itself is also of great value to the apprentice making them understand why certain things are in place as well as how the job they are doing matters to the business. This also helps as the college can bring some great value and knowledge to your business as they love to help employers and employees where they can. When we employ into this skills set, as we are currently doing, we look for apprentices first as we know how good they can be!"