Columnist

Seriously, why haven’t you hired an apprentice yet?

They’re determined to prove themselves, absorb everything you teach them and 96% of employers say apprentices benefit their business. So why are you overlooking apprentices in favour of temporary interns or graduates?

One Leeds agency is a particularly huge advocate of the apprenticeship scheme. Zeal have trained four apprentices since 2014, giving them a coveted spot on their content marketing, SEO and PPC teams – as well as hiring two fully fledged creatives who completed their apprenticeships elsewhere.

“I’m an absolute, massive fan of the apprenticeship scheme,” Zeal’s founder Jane Rutter explained. “I don’t care if someone has got a degree or not. If someone has a level of intelligence and a hardworking attitude, there are huge opportunities within our sector. Nobody is perfect, but we’re offering somebody an absolutely brilliant chance to walk into a job at an agency.”

And that somebody could be anyone over the age of 16, outside of full time education. Take an apprentice aged 16-24 under your wing and you could gain £1,500 in funding – helping even the smallest start-ups and businesses to coach, mentor and train someone to fit your roles. Plus, you don’t even have to pay employer National Insurance contributions for an apprentice under 25 – not that you should only be motivated by the financial gains. Find the right apprentice and your company could really fly.

“We’re really picky when we hire our apprentices making sure we get the right one,” Jane explained. “It’s about getting somebody who is a complete blank canvas but who has the passion to grab it and run with it.”

And Jane has a knack for finding them. Any of her apprentices could walk into another agency, having been trained at Zeal – not that they’d want to leave. Here they’re respected as an equal member of the agency. And as well as the training that comes with on-the-job learning, apprentices here enjoy all the perks – from skiing in France to zorbing in Leeds and team building pub visits.

“I’m sure there are other agencies who don’t put as much in as we do for our apprentices – but then you wouldn’t get as much out, do you? It’s just like life. You get out what you put in.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Zeal .