smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

So, another government incentive has been dangled in front of small businesses in the form of a fresh £6 million fund for hiring apprentices.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the subject of apprentices has been thrust into the SME limelight. In June, prime minister David Cameron announced a £25 million government fund that was hoped would support up to 10,000 through the Advanced and Higher Apprenticeships Scheme.

It’s all part of the government’s ambition to make apprenticeships a ‘gold standard option for ambitious young people’. But as much as it is a good idea in principle to tackle youth unemployment and develop new talent in the workplace, many businesses are reporting that the conditions just aren’t right for the scheme to be as successful as hoped.

According to a recent survey carried out by Clydesdale & Yorkshire banks, while some 84 per cent of SMEs agree the use of apprentices is a good way to develop new talent, 63 per cent admit they do not have the money to pay them. Mike Norfield, chief executive of Team Telecom Group, which has its own trainee initiative, confirms, ‘Many SMEs just do not have the time and infrastructure on their hands to implement an apprentice scheme.’

An incentive payment of around £1,500 for employers with up to 50 employees to take on apprentices is planned to support some 20,000 new apprenticeships in 2012/13. But is this really enough to persuade business owners to bite? After all, with small firms shedding staff left, right and centre, a small subsidy like this is meaningless when the balance must still be paid.

As Askar Sheibani, chief executive of Wales-based IT repair business Comtek says, ‘The government should fully subsidise an apprentice’s first year. If you go to businesses and tell them they have nothing to lose if they take on apprentices for one year, they will.’

Fans of apprenticeships argue that they can play an important role in future business growth. Telecommunications company Team Telecom Group invests heavily in research and development and, for chief executive Mike Norfield, apprentices are at the heart of this. ‘We have got great new products coming through and all my engineers are old, so the young apprentices coming on board are filling this gap,’ he remarks. But without the right infrastructure in place, such opportunities are unlikely to materialise for the majority.

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