Ditch the CV, Hire the Hustle: How SMEs Can Hire Apprentices 🤝

Hiring an apprentice has become mainstream. Leading employers like Google, KPMG, and the NHS are increasingly turning to apprenticeships to fill their skills gaps and meet their diversity and inclusion goals. However, the SME community, which employs 60% of the overall UK workforce, accounts for a disappointingly low 40% of UK apprenticeship opportunities.

The Case for Young People

It's easy to see the growing appeal of apprenticeships over university education. On-the-job applied learning, earning a wage, and avoiding student debt have led to apprenticeships being viewed as four times more likely to prepare someone for the working world compared to university.*

The Case for Businesses

Apprenticeships are not just a quick fix but a long-term investment in talent. You're not hiring to fill a gap; you're tapping into socially mobile talent pools and shaping them to fit your organisational culture—funded through the Apprenticeship Levy.

Challenges for SMEs

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, the largest hurdle for SMEs in engaging with apprenticeships is recruitment (42%), significantly outweighing concerns about management time (29%) and off-the-job training (24%).

Recruiting Apprentices

SMEs, with their smaller workforces, face higher risks with each new hire. Young talent, often with limited qualifications and experience, poses an especially high risk. How do you decide who is worth the risk? This is where Not Impossible can help:

1. Shared Passions: Local 16-25 year-olds discover you based on your economic, social, and environmental goals.

2. Compatible Personalities: We smart-match them with your existing employees through three brief tests, employing the latest behavioral science across personality, motivations, and reasoning skills.

3. Win/Win Work Shadowing: Our new one-day work experience model helps young people explore careers and receive advice from like-minded employees. Employers identify potential hires and build a pipeline of promising apprentice candidates. All the logistics organised by us.

Ultimately, for early years hiring we are really just looking for the right attitude. Skills can be taught; however, drive, ambition, and a willingness to learn are indispensable. We help you connect with those in your community who could be a great fit for you.

Book a meeting with us today to give Not Impossible a try.

*The case for apprenticeships in 2023 Multiverse