Many small businesses find apprentices to be great additions to their team and so do their customers. A whopping 81 percent of consumers favour using a company that takes on apprentices over those who don’t.

With such a high number of customers favouring the apprentice-friendly business you should ask yourself, how do I start?

If you’re still unconvinced, here are some reasons in favour of hiring an apprentice.

Grow your team on a budget

The recruitment process can be stressful, time consuming and expensive. One of the considerably attractive factors of hiring an apprentice for employers is their lower wage. The minimum apprentices can earn is £2.73 per hour as of October 2014 (for apprentices aged 16 to 18 and those aged 19 or over who are in their first year).

The majority of businesses offer their apprentices more than minimum, but even by offering more they save a considerable amount of money compared to hiring a more experienced individual. Coupled with the ease of being able to find and hire an apprentice, growing your team in this way can be an enjoyable and simple process.

Develop recruits to meet your needs

Hiring an apprentice is beneficial for both parties; the apprentice learns new skills which equip them in the business industry, while you can mould a fresh mind. Hiring experienced candidates obviously has benefits when it comes to beginning immediately, but it also means it is harder to teach new systems and explain why you do things differently from their last company.

Apprentices can pick up the system with more ease, and are less likely to get it confused, or question why you do it like this when their last company had a much more efficient and simpler method.

More motivated workforce

Having an apprentice can inject a little youth into your staff, and encourage other them. 88 percent of employers this year believed that their workforce were more motivated and satisfied after employing an apprentice.

Teaching the trade to a new face can make your team feel revitalised in their role, and remember how lucky they are to have a job they love!

Fill vacancies quickly

Hiring an apprentice is a pain-free process that requires very little effort on behalf of the employer. Simply register your interest on the National Apprenticeship Service and find a training organisation they’ll handle your apprentice’s training, qualification and assessment.

Once you’ve applied for a grant your training organisation can advertise your apprenticeship. It’s that easy! For full details on hiring an apprentice visit the Gov website.

New ideas

A fresh mind can bring new ideas to your company that you hadn’t considered. Often younger minds are more likely to be creative and ‘think outside the box’. By encouraging their views you can help them learn how their opinions are valued, and which ideas work well.

Apprentices can teach you as much as you teach them!

Have you hired an apprentice? Or are you thinking about it? Please leave your comments below and get in touch with your opinions!