Apprenticeships and succession planning

Succession planning - the process of identifying and developing potential future leaders and senior managers - is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today.

With recent changes simplifying the process for employers, it’s time to consider apprenticeships as the solution.

There are many advantages to investing in your current workforce, giving them the leadership training required to fulfil senior roles in the future.

Many organisations find that leaders promoted into the role perform better than those brought in - ‘insiders’ hold sector- and business-specific information and experiences, for example.

The opportunity to advance to a senior role is also a great motivator and improves retention rates.

From August this year, key government improvements will be introduced to enhance apprenticeship opportunities for individuals seeking professional development:

Firstly, it will be simpler for individuals to accelerate their apprenticeship by giving greater weight to their prior learning and experiences.

The government has also made a key change to the way it considers the need for ‘off the job’ training.

Apprentices who work more than 30 hours a week will now be able to spend more time on the job, delivering for their employers, whilst still gaining valuable training and development.

There have also been improvements to the funding for apprenticeships, with the Lancashire Levy Transfer system enabling all red rose businesses to be able to request full funding for their apprenticeship training costs.

At the same time, many apprenticeship providers have invested resources over the last 12 months, adapting to more flexible models of training – such as increasing the amount of blended training with online and face-to-face – making it easier for working professionals to balance learning and operational duties and being beneficial for businesses to incorporate apprenticeships into their retention strategy.