The past decade has seen a boom in apprenticeships with 2016 achieving record numbers according to figures released by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
In 2015/16 across England, Scotland and Wales, almost 25,000 people started a construction apprenticeship contributing to a 25% increase in apprenticeships in the last two years. CITB are the driving force behind the increase across Great Britain, funding over 8,400 employers to support 24,600 apprenticeships in 2016 alone.
Shared Apprenticeship Schemes are one of the reasons behind this spike, by allowing SME employers who dominate the construction sector to recruit over 500 apprentices last year, where they would otherwise have not been able to do so. Apprentices don’t just provide comedy gold on site, but new research conducted by Federation of Master Builders uncovered 50% of homes in the UK are more likely to hire a builder if they also employ an apprentice.
The research based on responses from 200 home owners across the UK also revealed that:
- Almost two thirds of home owners would have a more favourable image of a building firm knowing they train apprentices
- More than two in five would be more likely to recommend a building firm to a friend of family member based on the fact they train apprentices
- Almost two thirds of homeowners think that building firms should highlight the fact that they are training the next generation of tradespeople in their marketing material.
With new predictions that over 179,000 new workers are needed in the next five years, there is no better time to encourage people to join the industry. Not only does apprenticeship training reward career opportunities for young people, but it can also help a firm’s bottom line.
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