Promotion and recruitment

Recruiting apprentices can diversify your talent pool. Here’s how to recruit an apprentice and how we can help with promotion.

There are different ways you can recruit an apprentice and promote the apprenticeship job vacancy.

Find an Apprenticeship portal

The Find an Apprenticeship portal is where apprentice prospects go to search for and apply for apprenticeship vacancies. To get your apprenticeship vacancy onto this, you first need an apprenticeship service account. From there you’ll be able to set up an advert, as well as manage other aspects of the apprenticeship training such as funding.

Your own organisation

If you have a vacancies section on your company website, advertise it there as you would any other vacancy. You’ll need to be clear it’s an apprenticeship vacancy, so applicants understand they’re applying for a job with training and study. Make sure you ask your marketing team to promote it on their social channels too.

Your chosen training provider

Ask your chosen training provider. They’ll usually be able to promote your vacancy on your behalf.

At ARU, we help promote our employer partners’ apprenticeship vacancies through various channels:

• apprenticeship vacancies page
• our Degrees at Work social media channels
• email newsletter that goes out to a subscription list
• throughout our Schools and Colleges networks.

Other channels

There are other channels that will advertise your apprenticeship vacancy, and this may have a fee attached. Examples include:

• UCAS
• notgoingtouni.co.uk
• Total Jobs

Tips on shortlisting and choosing an apprentice

Consider these when shortlisting.

• Do they meet the eligibility criteria for apprenticeships? See https://www.gov.uk/become-apprentice
• Do they meet the entry requirements for that apprenticeship course – usually previous qualifications including level 2 in English and/or maths? Your training provider can help you with this.
• They may not have the experience or skills yet, but do they demonstrate potential through their application?

Considerations when choosing your apprentice.

• Do they understand it’s a job with training and study? Crucial as they’ll have to show commitment and hard work from the get-go.
• What are their future aspirations? Apprenticeships are a doorway to a future calling so knowing you’re employing someone genuinely interested in that career path is important. They shouldn’t just see it as a job for money. Commitment to see the programme through is key.
• Do they demonstrate their passion and potential during the interview? You can’t expect them to do the job like a seasoned professional from the start but as the apprentice learns, you’ll soon see the return on investment through the impact they have in your workplace.

Ask our consultants

If you want ARU to help with promoting a vacancy or want any advice about any aspect of the recruitment process, please contact our apprenticeship consultants. We're happy to help.