How Apprenticeships are unlocking Business Success

The Future of Tech Talent - How Apprenticeships may hold the key

In this edition of the Sales Surgery, in honour of Apprenticeship Week, we chatted to some accomplished advocates of Apprenticeships to hear how they have embraced apprentices into their businesses and why this is helping them prepare for the future.

With a noticeable stigma around the significance of apprentices this month's panel, including Simon Swan from Hiring Hub, Andrew Erwich from QA and Maninder Randhawa, Joe Pemberton and Grace Cowley from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) addressed the importance of investing in upcoming talent, onboarding and upskilling employees and positively changing the perception of apprenticeships.

Listen to what they have to say about their experiences, how their own apprentices have brought value to their workforce and why they are a vital part of development in the Technology Sector.

What's Discussed?

1. What to look for when hiring an apprentice
   Seek soft skills over experience. Grace Cowley, an apprentice at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), detailed how her apprenticeship helped develop a positive attitude towards her work as HPE invested so much time in her personal development.
2. Apprenticeships are not just for entry-level candidates
   Candidates can enter apprenticeships at different levels. This means they're a great tool for internal staff development, such as potential leadership or management training.
3. “Apprentices have had a positive impact on other staff”
   Helping drive diversity and work culture, hiring ‘blank canvases’ helped create new approaches and idea generations.

Our Guests

Simon Swan, CEO of Hiring Hub
Hiring Hub helps employers and recruiters work better together. Partnering with high-growth SMEs and enterprise companies that value people. They’re on a mission to inject transparency and trust into the heart of the recruitment industry, and use technology to facilitate better relationships, and to make people feel good about working with professional recruiters.

Simon has been the CEO for 10 years and shared with us his wealth of knowledge, information and personal experiences of apprenticeships.

Andrew Erwich, Head of Apprenticeship Solutions at QA
QA Apprenticeships are the stand-out, quality provider of IT and business apprenticeships, supporting both employers and candidates in England and Scotland with award-winning apprenticeship programmes.
Andrew shared his in-depth knowledge of apprenticeships to give us a feel of how QA have advanced, creating the leaders and technologists of the future.

Maninder Randhawa, Early Careers Strategy Lead UKIMESA at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Joe Pemberton, Storage & HCI Channel Specialists Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Grace Cowley, Level 3 IT Technical Sales Apprentice at Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is an enterprise technology leader. A global, edge-to-cloud Platform-as-a-Service company built to transform your business. Best known for Accelerating business outcomes with comprehensive solutions, from edge to cloud.

Both Maninder and Joe touch on how Hewlett Packard Enterprise have benefited from their involvement with apprenticeships, ranging from Sales to Tech and Grace discusses her apprenticeship journey and how it's helped her professional and personal development.