Apprenticeships, Skills & Training
Feature
yYes…ou do have time
for apprentices. But do they have time for YOU?
Mark Freiberga-Postle, (pictured) owner of start-up Sticky Knowledge®, discusses the relationship between apprentice training and organisational growth.
happens in the mind of the person taught. The brain is plastic, in the sense it can change, meaning training outcomes are not biologically decided for us. Constructive outcomes result from our genes literally interacting with our experience. Training, when combined with an organisation’s interaction with an apprentice, changes their behaviours, for the better. Organisations cannot grow if
Y
talent and skill is never developed and deployed throughout its scope of influence. What is an organisation if not a hive of human brains interacting with one another toward a common goal, a purpose? This begs the question - if the sum of an organisation is the intellect it employs, is it not safe to say that to grow an organisation you need to grow the individuals within it? Apprentices may be young, fresh
to the discipline they are being trained in. Yet they have skills talent and ideas of their own. They may not know it; perhaps not even realise, they can combine what comes naturally to them to what is
ou cannot “do learning” at people. Learning is a cognitive action which
not prevalent in the organisation. Left untapped, by not having the right amount of time for apprentices, by not leveraging their newly learnt skills with their knowledge from the times we live in, will mean losing out on growth in your organisation. Only for another organisation to entice them away.
‘Organisations cannot grow if talent and skill is never developed’
Apprentices may attend a faculty
who will teach them part of their skills. They will be learning the academic framework of the apprenticeship - the practical foundations for skills which will make up their qualification - in a classroom environment. As an organisation you are employing them to provide ‘in work’ skills, real life activities, the practice that will make or break their learning. They deserve your attention; they deserve people who will take them seriously in their endeavours to qualify. Better, surely, it feels like a team achievement for everyone
involved in the organisation when an apprentice gains their qualification, and a sad and bitter loss when they do not make the grade. The only time an apprentice
should boil the kettle and make the tea is when they offer, or when it is their turn! They are part of the organisation, and if they are doing a round robin apprenticeship joining many different departments, they must be welcomed as part of the team. Think about what they are currently being taught, what phase of the apprenticeship, what knowledge set is essential to support them, the practice they need. More importantly, how will they measure the impact of their learning in practical terms. We have all been there; learning a new skill or discipline requires evidence of how far we have yet to go and support in determining a pathway to get there. The key word is support, and support always needs feedback, the more positive the better. This is not to say you must give
them a round of applause for every activity they do. Far from it. When they get something wrong explanation is necessary, guidance,
yet again, support. Apprentices are not children, they are young adults, in a paid job. What the organisation provides them now is something they will recount until the day they die.
Getting apprentice training
support right delivers growth within the organisation. Not only will the apprentice learn, and grow as a human being (and as a professional), so will those who support them. Rarely do we face our own skills challenges. Supporting the development of others ensures we too grow as human beings, professionals. When this happens, organisations grow organically; individuals recognise their own deficiencies, their lack of ‘up to date’ knowledge, where they could be better. Suffice to say, providing
apprentices with a well-considered, properly attended nurturing and planned activities, can only grow apprentices and the individuals involved. This is how organisations grow, collectively, together, as a team. Make the apprentice want to stay, want to be part of your organisation, let them tell stories of how great the organisation was when they grow old.
February 2021 CHAMBERLINK 63
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