Think Enterprise June 2018

Think Enterprise Publication | June Edition

READ INSIDE

APPRENTICESHIPS

SPECIAL

ENTERPRISE MENTOR

SUNIL SHARMA

SPOTLIGHT ON...

SAM MARGRAVE

ARTICLE ON

ERASMUS+ PROJECT

Vol. 20

MAGAZINE June Edition Vol. 20

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SARAH TROUTEN, IOEE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Hi and welcome to a very warm and sunny June edition of Think Enterprise!

Following apprenticeship reforms last year, businesses across the country have been affected by the newly introduced levy. This month we caught up with a number of our partners to understand what this means for them and how they have embraced the changes to ensure a positive impact on their business. I am encouraged to see new plans for a levy transfer system which I hope will enable many more small businesses to access and utilise apprenticeships as a way to grow their business.

This month we also catch up with one of our newest academies The Aston Villa Foundation and find out how they are using IOEE programmes to support the wider community. We also shine the spotlight on Sam Margrave an IOEE Academic Fellow and his inspiring work being done at Worcester University - a great read.

We feature this month an exciting project we are involved in which will develop a set of learning materials and resources to assist businesses in understanding and supporting social innovation. The project will also profile businesses and organisations who have spotted opportunities for social innovation and who have successfully managed the journey from idea to action - read more and find out how to get involved on page 26.

I am delighted to see this week a new fund launched to support small businesses in adopting tried and tested technologies and management techniques, you can read more on this fund on page 30.

Enterprisingly Me really struck a chord with me this month as time definitely runs away from me, too!

So it’s over and out – enjoy the sunshine this weekend and this month’s edition! x

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Contents 06 Aston Villa Foundation

08 UK Startup Programme Final Awards

10 Enterprising Mentor

12 Apprenticeships Special

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24 Spotlight On...

Sam Margrave

26 Understanding and Supporting Social Innovation

28 Enterprisingly Me x

30 Business Basics Fund

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32 Custom Planet Case Study

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Aston Villa Foundation LE AR N H OW T HE A S TO N V ILL A FOUNDAT I O N IS SUPPORTING THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY

The Aston Villa Foundation is a registered charity that delivers projects and activities in Birmingham across four key themes; sport & recreation, health & wellbeing, education &

WE SPEAK TO PETE EZARD THE PROGRAMMES M A N A G E R AT A S T O N V I L L A F O U N D AT I O N , A N I O E E A C A D E M Y T O DISCUSS THEIR WORK.

Trying to motivate high school pupils who may be disengaged with education, have behavioural issues, or who are not going to attain high-level GCSE results, is not going to be without its challenges – but Aston Villa Football Club is a sure-fire way to get young people’s attention and invite them to look at education in a whole new way.

Pete Ezard is the Programmes Manager for the Aston Villa Foundation; a charitable trust and new IOEE Academy. The Birmingham-based foundation supports young people through the delivery of learning and employability opportunities and SFEDI-accredited qualifications, using the status of Aston Villa Football Club to attract and inspire pupils. This month we chatted to Pete about getting young people interested in education through Aston Villa’s three core values: Pride, Passion and Purpose.

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Pete says: “As the Foundation’s Programmes Manager, part of my role is to provide educational opportunities within schools, particularly with young people who might not be at the highest level of achievements; kids who may have behavioural issues or other academic or personal challenges –who are, for one reason or another, disengaged with school and learning.

We use the Aston Villa Football Club as a beacon to attract them, to draw them back into a learning state of mind, to get them engaged and actively involved in enrichment programmes and social enterprise qualifications. It can be extremely hard work and there’s a lot of demand on our workforce, but the reward is the flip side of that – watching young people overcoming challenges

and attaining a qualification is an amazing thing to see.”

Aimed at Year 9 and Year 10 students, the SFEDI-accredited Social Enterprise qualification teaches students about what social enterprise means, and then gives them the opportunity to set up and run a business that will positively impact their school or local community.

Pete says: “It takes the shape of a traditional 10-hour course, with onehour sessions running weekly for 10 weeks. The actual content of the qualification is to encourage young people to think about developing a business, but any profit that their social enterprise generates gets fed back into a charitable donation. For example, lots of young people come up with such things as football tournaments, which will raise awareness of issues in the local area, and those issues can be quite hard-hitting – knife crime and gang culture is a problem in this area, so it’s great that kids are positively engaging and working to not only get a qualification, but also to positively impact the local community.”

Though qualifications are key, Pete tells us that students actually gain far more than academic education, and that the Aston Villa Foundation is seeing students come on leaps and bounds with their personal self-esteem and confidence. The Foundation has recently worked with Great Barr Academy, which supports students who have various special educational needs, who often find the traditional classroom environment restrictive to their learning.

One particular student stands out for Pete – a student who not only required support with a number of aspects of core education subjects like Maths and English, but who also faced significant struggles with nerves and anxiety.

Pete says: “The Social Enterprise programme made such a positive impact with this student. She’s overcome huge barriers to achieve her goal and is now a much more confident individual who has improved self-esteem and the ability to manage her anxiety in lots of situations.

It was evident during every lesson that she was worried about the final event;

in her reflection work she said that she’d felt anxious about how people were going to approach her, and what she would do if something went wrong.

During the project her anxiety levels were constantly up and down. On the morning of the project’s event, she didn’t even want to come into school as she felt so worried and nervous about it all.

“However, with support and reassurance from her tutor and mentor, she came in and was very calm and prepared, very conscientious, making sure that all members of her group were on task - she really came out of her shell and became a natural leader.

It was a great way of giving her a sense of achievement, and it significantly increased her own confidence and engagement within her peer group.

As a result of the Social Enterprise qualification, our students subsequently have a desire to help others to use social enterprise as a way of learning too, and so they themselves inspire other students to become more engaged in education as a result.”

The Aston Villa Foundation has recently been awarded its IOEE Academy status, and Pete reflects on what this new accreditation means to him and the charitable trust.

Pete says: “SFEDI quality-assure all of the work that we do, and so all of the programmes and qualifications that we deliver need to be observed and assessed, which holds us accountable to ensure we’re consistently meeting our own high standards as well as theirs. Becoming a delivery partner for SFEDI Awards gives us an external verification that adds to our reputation as a professional organisation that is recognised for delivering successful social enterprise sessions; it’s a stamp of approval and a new and exciting partnership, and one I’m very much looking forward to taking forwards with more of our educational programmes.”

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UK Start Up Programme Final Awards 2018

Eleven teams of enterprising Further and Higher Education students from across the UK went head to head to be named Best Overall Company at the Young Enterprise Start Up Proramme Final 2018, supported by HSBC, The Marketing Trust, Russel Ulyett Financial Services, Ernst Young Foundation, Costa, Dunelm and The Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust on the 9th May at Loughborough College.

Cornish Essence, from Truro and Penwith College in Cornwall scooped the top prize of the evening. The team created visually and aromatically pleasing air fresheners and candles, inspired

by Cornwall’s exquisite character and themed by its bloom, coast, heritage and landscape. The products entice nostalgia and stimulate the senses via the combination of fragrances with MVT Photography images. The judges were blown away by the teams targeted marketing and professional business model. The team will now go on to represent the UK in Riga at the European final.

Cornish Essence said: ‘’We are absolutely delighted to have won Company of the Year at the Young Enterprise Start Up Programme UK final and feel honoured and proud to represent the UK at the European finals in Latvia next month. It was a tough competition against 10 other universities who all did really well. The team has worked exceptionally hard and I cannot thank those who have supported us enough. A special thank you to Young Enterprise for providing us with these amazing opportunities and introducing us to a network of professionals.’’

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There were eleven teams representing regions across the UK, competing for eight awards. The teams had all gone through a rigorous series of local and area finals to reach the UK Final.

The Start Up Programme has been specifically designed for Higher Education (HE) and Further Education (FE) to enhance educational experience and deepen learning. By participating in the programme students not only understand what skills employers are looking for but have the opportunity to develop, apply and model these skills in a business environment.

The Student of the Year- Anjool Maldé Award for Enterprise and Innovation which recognises the achievements of students on the Start Up Programme was awarded to Sophie Westwood from West College Scotland. This award is kindly supported by The Anjool Maldé Memorial Trust who provide a £1000.00 cash prize to the winner.

Sophie Westwood, West College Scotland said: ‘’What an experience these last few days have been. I have been awarded ‘Young Enterprise Student of the Year’ and couldn’t be happier with the outcome! The first of many awards, hopefully, couldn’t have done it without such a supportive team, you guys are the best! The hard work pays off in the end’’ Young Enterprise alumna Mina Karshala hosted the evening, alongside one of the UK’s leading property experts- Analyst and Commentator Kate Faulkner. Jennifer Crawley, UK Head of Performance for Business Banking Small Businesses, HSBC UK, said: ‘’The Young Enterprise scheme is a unique platform that enables young people to gain the skills employers are looking

for and apply them in a business environment. We’re delighted to support Young Enterprise and I was incredibly inspired by the students who attended this year’s Young Enterprise Start-Up Final. Their business acumen, flair, creativity and enthusiasm gives me great hope for our next generation of business owners who will help the UK economy to grow and prosper.’’

Michael Mercieca, Chief Executive of Young Enterprise, said: “I’d like to congratulate the students from Cornish Essence for winning Young Enterprise Start Up Programme Company of the Year Award. Young Enterprise firmly believe developing creativity and employability skills can have a real impact on young people’s futures.’’

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Best Presentation- Capacity, Loughborough College

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Best Exhibition Stand- Tinctura, Edge Hill University

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Best Pitch Deck- Tyton, Kingston University

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Promotional Video of the Year Award- Get Your Juice Out, Manchester Met University

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Enterprise Ambassador of the Year Award- Iqbal Ullah, Loughborough College

“You don’t get this stuff from a text book and we are greatly encouraged by our research which shows that 84% of participating students reported that they now understand what it takes to set up and run their own business.’’

Full list of competing teams and prizes: •

Overall Start Up Company of the Year- Cornish Essence, Truro and Penwith College

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Student of the Year- Sophie Westwood, West College Scotland

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Award for Marketing Excellence- Meal Mate, Liverpool Hope University

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ENTERPRISE MENTO ENTERPRISE MENTOR SUNIL SHARMA

Sunil Sharma joined the IOEE’s Mentoring Programme in 2014, and he has recently celebrated completing his 10th mentoring case; however, reaching this milestone doesn’t mean slowing down for Sunil, and he has taken on another three mentees since the beginning of 2018.

Sunil works for Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), and he is united with his mentees by the IOEE’s Mentoring Manager, Paul Harper, who perfectly matches up mentors and mentees to create the strongest working relationships. This month we caught up with Sunil to talk about his business background, family inspiration, and the excitement that comes with each mentoring journey.

Sunil has worked in a number of different areas and departments of Lloyds Banking since 2003, transitioning into the Insurance and Wealth Division last year. He also has experience of running an independent business before his corporate banking career, but explains that his business mindset was instilled in him all the way back in his childhood. Sunil says: “I’ve just been business all the way through; it’s always been there in the background. My father had three shops and so I grew up around him running his own business, and he used to tell me that it’s the way forward. When I went to college to do a BTEC in Business and Finance I also started to become more actively involved in my father’s shops, working evenings and weekends and learning the business side, such as sourcing products, marketing, accounting and finance. When people say ‘it’s in your blood’, that’s exactly the phrase I would use, and I’ve always tried to stick with that.”

Prior to joining Lloyds, Sunil set up his own family business, working alongside his sister, and he cites this as being the place where he really cut his teeth as a business owner and entrepreneur, learning many business lessons ‘the hard way’ – lessons that he is now able to pass on to his mentees, and that enable him to relate to the challenges they may be facing.

Sunil says: “My sister trained as a holistic therapist and herbalist, offering treatments like reflexology and Indian head massage, and then she started to toy with the idea of selling aromatherapy products, but didn’t know where to start with the business side of things. We realised we’d be

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OR SUNIL SHARMA a great fit for a partnership – she had the product knowledge and I had the business knowledge – and so we joined forces to set up Holistic Tree. I created a business structure and plan that helped us to secure a loan, and we went from making the products at the kitchen table into a full production unit, attending trade shows and securing big contracts with clients from The Daily Mail to Classic FM.

ideas is one of the most difficult parts of mentoring. And hey, if they want to do it, then they’ll do it – who am I to say their idea doesn’t have the mileage, or that I wouldn’t risk it, or it’s not worth pursuing?! Of course, I don’t mean that’s the actual case – but often people are so full of boundless energy and excitement and want to do absolutely everything all at once, and you have to be the voice of reason that’s like, ‘okay, calm down, one step at a time, let’s get our practical thinking caps

“Trying to ground people when they’re running away with ideas is one of the most difficult parts of mentoring.”

“I was involved with Holistic Tree for five years and took a step back only when I was about to get married. Running your own business is amazing, but completely consuming. I was working 24/7 and travelling for work, and I needed to slow down for a while – so when mentees are struggling with the intensity of running their own business and finding that work-life balance, then I know the feeling! My whole experience with Holistic Tree is what grounds me in my mentoring role, as I’ve been in the position that my mentees are in. I’ve shared the same story, understand the headaches and hurdles in setting up a company, and know that when you’re so involved and invested in it that you often can’t see the wood for the trees. That’s what is so beneficial about mentoring – sometimes you need someone else to be able to look at your business objectively, someone you can bounce ideas off; someone who can see things differently.”

on and make some plans and time frames to make this happen!’.

Now that Sunil is an established mentor with over ten case studies under his belt, he reflects upon what makes him keep pushing forward with his mentoring role. Sunil says: “I think it is a very difficult thing to do, to be an entrepreneur. It requires a very specific skillset, and people aren’t always taught the things they need to know before they embark upon being an entrepreneur - and people have fantastic ideas, so I believe it’s important to support them if you can, and that’s what it’s all about for me. It’s amazing to be recognised for doing mentoring, but it really hinges on the mentees; not me. What I do wouldn’t be possible without these people coming forward with these exciting and innovative ideas and putting themselves out there – and as long as people keep coming forward with the ideas and excitement, then I’ll keep on mentoring.”

Since signing up to become a mentor Sunil has attended a number of IOEE workshops to support him through the process, particularly enjoying the practical hands-on sessions, such as discussing business ideas with members of the public and guiding them to places where they could take that idea to the next level. It is the excitement that people have for their new businesses that inspires Sunil, and he feels like that passion and ambition is contagious; they are excited to meet with Sunil and make share their ideas and plans, and Sunil is subsequently excited to meet with his mentees. However, Sunil says that this same excitement is also one of mentoring’s biggest challenges, and he explains how he tries to find a balance of being the practical voice or reason without dampening mentees’ enthusiasm. Sunil says: “Trying to ground people when they’re running away with

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If we invest in getting the right people trained for our business, this breeds loyalty and many become team leaders who progress into management

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Apprenticeships are becoming ever more popular and last year more than half a million apprentices began their training, and there were over 1.4 million online applications.

Apprenticeships deliver work for young people and adults, giving apprentices the chance to earn while they learn in a real job, gaining a real qualification and a real future.

Currently, more than 100,000 employers in England offer Apprenticeships in 200,000 locations, covering over 170 industries and 1500 different job roles.

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BRITISH MARINE Marine apprenticeships have historically played a major role in developing the skills and expertise of the marine workforce.

According to British Marine’s Labour Market Survey (September 2016), the UK marine industry employs 470 apprentices across 100 businesses.

Almost three quarters of these apprenticeships are in manufacturing and engineering (43% boat manufacturing, 21% repairs and servicing, 8% equipment manufacturing).

To ensure that marine apprenticeships continue to support and develop the skills required by the industry, marine employers have embraced the government’s ongoing apprenticeship reforms.

A key element of the reforms is the development of new apprenticeship standards, Trailblazers, which are approved for delivery via the Institute for Apprenticeship’s stringent approval process.

British Marine, the membership organization leading the UK leisure, superyacht and small commercial marine industry is supporting its members to form employer groups to develop the apprenticeship standards that will ensure the industry maintains and grows its skills levels now and in the future. British Marine has over 1,550 members drawn from both seagoing and inland sectors and represents an industry employing more than 33,000 people in the UK. British Marine’s Training Manager, Blue Davies commented: “Apprenticeships are growing across the marine industry and more and more of our member companies are benefitting from taking on apprentices.” The apprenticeship standards developed by the employer groups supported by British Marine include Boatbuilder, Marine Engineer, and Marina and Boatyard Operative. Further standards are planned or are currently in development, these include the Marine Electrician, Yacht Painter and Sprayer. Others will be developed, as demand for apprenticeships in marine occupations is identified. The industry is also engaging more and more with non-marine specific apprenticeships, in areas like IT, business administration and marketing.

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Keith Longman, Yard Manager at British Marine member company Berthon Boat Company Ltd, and a Trailblazer group employer chair had this to say about the role of British Marine on apprenticeships: “British Marine are at the forefront of ensuring that new apprenticeship standards are being built to ensure we have training that meets the needs of employers.”

Employers have a clear understanding of what training they require for their apprentices, and having the opportunity to engage in driving change as well as determining depth and breadth of delivery has been a hugely positive step in creating qualifications and apprenticeships that are up to date and fit for purpose for the marine industry.” Supporting the formation of employer groups to develop the new and more robust marine related apprenticeship standards is just one way that British Marine helps ensure growth and quality of apprenticeships in the industry. British Marine also provides advice and guidance to member companies about the wider apprenticeship reforms and advice available to member companies wanting to employ apprentices.

British Marine, working in partnership with Apprenticemakers also offer Apprenticeship Mentoring workshops. These are highly interactive and provide a thorough understanding of the vital mentoring role, covering the skills and tools required for effective mentoring. The workshops enable delegates to

pprentices at British Marine’s pprentice Graduation Awards 2017

practice relevant communications skills and help delegates consider how mentoring can help with the challenges facing apprentices in the workplace. The work shops help mentors understand how they can empower apprentices so that they take ownership of their work and study goals. A delegate on a recent workshop commented: “various businesses shared their experiences and having that line of communication opened up was really interesting. We heard from other British Marine member companies who were responsible for training apprentices, and it was great to get their ideas and insight.

“We also took part in roleplay exercises where we acted out various scenarios and looked at the different outcomes – really

“ British Marine are at the forefront of ensuring that new apprenticeship standards are being built to ensure we have training that meets the needs of employers ”

hands on stuff that made the workshops relaxed and fun and took us away from traditional sitting in a classroom learning.

Our perception of mentoring and how it can impact our young staff has changed dramatically as a result.” British Marine is also taking an active role in promoting apprenticeships, not just in the marine industry, but across all industries.

At TheYachtMarket.com Southampton Boat Show 2017, British Marine held its seventh annual Apprenticeship Graduation Awards. This annual event champions the apprentices of member companies, their achievements and the employers supporting them. Ian Cooke, MD at British Marine member company C-Quip, commented on the value of the Awards in regard to a graduating

apprentice (Alex Bere, Business Administration) from his company: “The British Marine Graduation Ceremony gave C-Quip the chance to show the industry just how proud we are of Alex, and how important apprenticeships of all types, are to the industry.”

British Marine provides a wide range of activity and support to help develop and deliver training skills development and career promotion for the benefit of its member companies in the UK marine industry. For more information on the work and role of British Marine in this area, visit: www.britishmarine.co.uk/ careers.

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APPRENTICES AT

CLARION

“ The rewards are massive, particularly around apprenticeships,

because you’re not just giving someone a job, but you’re starting their career ”

Manager in June of last year, and he is ambitious, determined and passionate about helping people to kick-start their careers.

Clarion Housing Group is the country’s largest housing association, with over 125,000 properties nationwide. Through its partnership with the IOEE’s Apprenticemakers programme, Clarion helps people to access employment and training opportunities through its charitable foundation, Clarion Futures. Alex Dean is Clarion’s National Apprenticeship Manager, and this month we caught up with him to talk about how giving people the best start in work can change their lives as well as their careers.

The IOEE’s Apprenticemakers programme works closely with a variety of organisations to build and strengthen apprenticeship programmes.

It provides a range of support and services, from workshops, training and accredited qualifications for apprentices themselves, to mentoring training for the individuals who are supporting such apprentices. Having been with Clarion for six years, Alex recently stepped into this new role of National Apprenticeship

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Alex says: “Internally, there’s always a big push to try and take on more apprenticeships, and that’s always a battle, because recruitment managers, with the best wills in the world, often want someone to just come in and do the job - which is, of course, not an apprentice, by the very definition of an apprentice. You need additional support, resources and training required for apprenticeships to be successful, and getting everything in place that you need can make my role very challenging. On a personal level, this is a brand new role created from a merger last year, so the fact that it didn’t exist before gives me even more of a push - to not only prove the importance and success of apprenticeships, but to prove myself too.”

However, Alex explains that alongside the challenges of his job come great rewards; last year Clarion celebrated starting their 750th apprentice, and they are currently working hard towards their ambition to reach a milestone 1000th apprenticeship: Alex says: “The rewards are massive, particularly around apprenticeships, because you’re not just giving someone a job, but you’re starting their career. When we look back at some of our case studies it’s amazing to see how far people have come. Some of those people started with us at a Level 2 or Level 3 position, and now they’re in a management role. Creating career

pathways and actively supporting progression forms a key part of our mentoring programme. As a housing association, if you’re developing a career for tenants and residents, you’re actually helping that community at large.

In certain areas where we might have such things as antisocial behavioural issues, helping to move those people into employment and away from minimum wage and earn good money and have a career – the effects can be huge. It’s not just about employment; you’re actually helping people to get themselves a better start in life. Sometimes you have whole families who haven’t worked, and you can change the lives of a whole family.” This compassion and understanding for people’s personal and professional lives uniting runs through all of Clarion’s courses and qualifications, and Alex tells us how this has helped to secure Clarion Future’s strong reputation for supporting people and communities.

Alex says: “Needing that work-life balance is real life, and I think our approach is a bit more sustainable than some of the others out there, because we truly understand that people need their job to work with their personal life and vice versa. For example, we’re currently delivering a course that’s aimed at lone parents, which is specifically about how to set up your own business up if you have to work from home - so it’s dealing with such things as school run issues, finances and accounting, and how to put a business plan together.”

only those directly involved in the programme, but the wider business too.

Alex says: “Partnering with Apprenticemakers has allowed us to launch the programme with real momentum, and delivering this quality of service has ultimately had a very positive ripple effect throughout the business. We also recently launched our Clarion Futures Mentoring Programme to support and develop our internal apprentices. Being one of the largest housing associations in Europe, we were keen to ensure that the programme not only had national coverage, but also that the learning was standardised across the group to ensure each and every apprentice received the same high standard of support, whether the apprentice worked in property services or finance.

“We have very high objectives and expectations set around apprenticeship sustainment and progression. We use Apprenticeships as a proven and effective way of introducing new talent into the business, and to continuously build a strong and diverse workforce. We are proud to have supported 750 apprenticeship starts to date and are working hard to achieve hitting our ambitious target of 1000th apprenticeships. It will be a massive achievement, but I’ll be continuing to push forwards to get even more people trained and qualified – to give them a better start in their careers that could change the course of their futures.”

The Apprenticemakers programme has enabled Clarion Futures to deliver sustainable training and industry-recognised qualifications, and the positive results have impacted not

“Partnering with Apprenticemakers has allowed us to launch the programme with real

momentum, and delivering this quality of service has ultimately had a very positive ripple effect throughout the business ”

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THOUGHTS

HOW ARE MARSTON’S TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE 2017 APPRENTICE

LEVY

We’ve had the opportunity this month to speak to Jo Bradford, Group Apprenticeship Manager at Marston’s and find out exactly how they have been able to utilise the current apprenticeship levy.

When asked on Marston’s stance on Apprenticeships & their use of the Levy Jo said “Apprentices are a key part of our People Strategy, apprentices bring a number of benefits to our business, through productivity gains, to increased employee retention.

As a business you are believed to be more competitive when you train apprentices and consumers do favour using a company that takes on apprentices.

Whilst the introduction of the apprenticeship levy is an unwelcome tax, we see it as a positive approach to addressing skills shortage issues we face. 18 months ago our apprenticeship offering was for pub teams only, the programmes were offered as a “nice to do” rather than being used as a strategic tool to address our recruitment, retention and succession challenges. Optimising our levy will mean doing more of what we already do, developing our people through apprenticeships. The levy and new apprenticeship standards have opened our eyes to the new apprenticeships emerging, historically our focus had been on our pub teams, however apprenticeships are now a key pillar in our people strategy and workforce planning across the whole Marston’s group.

We are extremely pleased with the progress made over the last year, we were an early adopter and one of the first large hospitality companies to introduce the new hospitality apprenticeship standards and we are now delivering eleven standards across the business. The standards, designed by employer’s, really do help us to develop our apprentices to be fully occupational competent and have raised the quality and reputation of apprenticeships.

We are using apprenticeships to address our key business challenges; our focus on volume pub roles to increase retention & improve stability has seen a rise in new apprentices joining us, from an average of 17 per month to 67 per month. Apprentice retention is reassuringly high at 71%, compared to an industry turnover average of 100% plus. We have also focused on critical and hard to fill roles and have increased our chef apprentices by 20%, which in turn supports retention and succession.”

We were extremely interested in hearing how Marston’s had approached the Levy and if they had introduced any of their own initiatives as a result of this. Jo has this to say “A further focus, as a result of the apprenticeship reforms, is to attract and develop early talent and we have seen a 3% increase in 16-18 year olds, predominantly

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Apprentichef’d in our kitchens. This has encouraged us to start to participate in live apprenticeship shows to raise the profile of hospitality and the opportunities available. We are keen to engage with school students in Spring 2019, by offering work experience, to inspire young people into a fun working environment that isn’t the normal 9-5, it’s a place to make new friends and a land full of opportunities.

In order to make apprenticeships as accessible as possible, we have a new refreshed microsite www.marstonsapprenticeships. co.uk, that hosts an ‘All You Need to Know About Apprenticeships’ guide, short team member and General Manager engagement videos, which explain how to get involved and how to recruit an apprentice. This has been further supported by guides being sent to all our managed pubs and flyers sento all pub partners.

In addition to supporting our pubs with apprentices, we have recruited apprentices to our breweries. With an ageing workforce and hard to fill vacancies we introduced a four year multi-skilled Engineering apprenticeship for school leavers, who join us in July, following a nine month placement at a training academy, where they have been able to develop their foundational engineering skills and knowledge.

This year, the Marston’s Apprenticeship Awards 2018 formed a major part of how week celebrated the 11th National Apprenticeship Week 2018, from 5th to 9th March. National Apprenticeship Week was all about celebrating our apprentices up and down the country, and sharing how our people, our teams and our business are all #betterbecause of apprenticeships.

During the week we delivered some very special awards to some of our outstanding apprentices. They had no idea they’d won, so there were lots of cheers, huge beaming smiles and the odd tear or two, as teammates, families and customers gathered to share in their success. Every award presentation was streamed live on Marston’s Talent Academy Facebook page and posted on Linked In, with an impressive 12,000 views!

The Beer Quality Technician pipeline has driven us to co-chair, alongside Innserve, a new Employer Trailblazer Group, who will design a new Drinks Dispense Technician Apprenticeship Standard; supporting our need for an inclusive entry-level route into the Beer Quality Technician role.

Our final main focus was to target top talent to build succession making Marston’s The Place to Be and we have gone from zero to forty support centre apprentices; including 18 higher level 5 apprentices studying Operations Management, which, in some cases, is supporting us to bridge the gap and build an internal pipeline for General Managers being Area Operations Manager ready.”

How can Marston’s ensure apprentices are supported and contribute to the success of Marstons? Jo said “We work in partnership with Lifetime Training to deliver our hospitality apprenticeships, Lifetime also work with all the large hospitality companies, Greene King, Mitchells & Butler, McDonalds, KFC, and Hilton etc. We have formed a Hospitality Steering Group, ‘Loving Hospitality’. The group will work towards changing the perception of Hospitality and make it a career destination of choice.

The newly created Group Apprenticeship Manager role that was created 18 month’s ago has helped us to navigate the processes, understand the apprenticeships available and implement our new initiatives. Working in partnership with a number of specialist training providers has helped to make apprenticeships accessible and has supported us to ensure the apprentice and line manager are supported fully through the programme.”

So what did Jo have to say to businesses considering taking on an Apprentice for the first time? “For businesses thinking about taking on an apprentice for the first time, apprenticeships should be aligned to your people strategy and the biggest need of the business, the rest will follow, improved retention, increased team member confidence, progression and loyalty.”

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APPRENTICESHIP LEVY O

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The Apprenticeship Levy affects employers in all sectors. The levy is paid on annual paybills in excess of £3 million, and so less than 2% of UK employers currently pay it. The purpose of the levy has been to encourage employers to invest in apprenticeship programmes and to raise additional funds to improve the quality and quantity of apprenticeships.

The Apprenticeships Levy paid by businesses can be accessed by those same businesses to fund apprenticeship training in their business. When news about the levy broke it was received to mixed reviews with some business organisations voicing concerns that larger business will also have to find additional funds to pay for the ‘on costs’ of recruiting more apprentices.

Others welcomed the levy as a way to raise funds to increase the quality of apprenticeships across the board and as a mechanism for ensuring apprenticeships are built into the skills plans of all larger businesses. Over a year down the line since the Levy was introduced we recently reached out to our partners and people of the internet to find out exactly what the general concensous was on the apprenticeships levy which was brough into action in 2017.

In a recent poll over 70% of responses indicated the levy as a positive reform, however a staggering 80% of small business’ feel there is a lack of information and don’t know where to take on apprentices. Hopefully the upcoming apprenticeship levy transfer will enable small business’ particularly those in the supply chain for larger companies to be able to access additionall apprenticeship funding and information.

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Whilst the introduction of the apprenticeship levy is an unwelcome tax, we see it as a positive approach to addressing skills shortage issues we face.

Joanne Bradford Group Apprenticeship Manager Marstons

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Partnering with Apprenticemakers has allowed us to launch the programme with real momentum, and delivering this quality of service has ultimately had a very positive ripple effect throughout the business Alex Dean Apprenticeship Development Manager Clarion

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Apprenticeships are growing across the marine industry and more and more of our member companies are benefitting from taking on apprentices Blue Davies Training Manager British Marine

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We are currently using the levy to create new apprenticeship opportunities as well as providing a way for existing staff to upskill and follow chosen career pathways.

Fiona anderson Apprentice Lead/Wex Manager Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust

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Developing Mentoring Skills To Support Apprentices Apprenticemakers we have created an engaging and enjoyable one day workshop which provides an introduction to mentoring for those taking on a mentoring role to support apprentices.

The Support Your Apprentices Need

Participants will be immersed in an interactive and thought provoking session that develops an individual’s skills and abilities in order to become a successful apprentice mentor. This workshop also supports individuals looking to build upon their current skillset & develop their wider people management skills.

What People Have Said

As used by:

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5 Reasons Why You Should Be Mentoring Your Apprentices Mentoring can provide much needed additional support to an apprentice, helping them understand their role in the business, develop their career path, and provide a listening ear if they’re facing any problems and challenges.

However, you may not have considered the benefits mentoring can bring to the wider business and the mentors themselves.

Here are just some of the benefits we’ve identified:

Mentoring builds excellent questioning and listening skills The best mentors are those that actively listen and ask the right questions to help their mentee reflect on his or her professional experience. It’s not a mentor’s job to be an all knowing oracle, instead they are there to ask questions, listen attentively and share their experience and knowledge in order to help the apprentice develop their own resourcefulness. Mentors have reported that further developing great questioning and listening skills as mentors has been surprisingly effective in other areas of their professional and personal lives too, such as managing their team, working with customers or suppliers, or even with the challenges of personal relationships!

Mentoring requires self-reflection and widens knowledge Supporting an apprentice helps mentors become more aware of their own areas of development, highlighting areas where they might not have considered that they need more knowledge.

Mentors are encouraged to record thoughts and ideas after mentoring sessions and use them as part of their development as a manager. Mentoring is a two-way street, and many also report that they also feel that they’ve learnt more from their mentee and the process of mentoring than they anticipated.

New apprentices can bring new ideas and skills, and mentors are at the front line, being able learn from those ideas themselves and help the apprentice successfully apply these to the business. Good mentors are keen to learn as much as they’re willing to share.

Mentoring builds role models Allocating mentoring roles to managers and senior apprentices in the businesses sends a clear message to new starters about the potential for their role and the kind of work ethic and qualities that are valued. Also those that develop trust and respect with their mentees can become even more influential role models. Allocating mentoring roles to previous apprentices can also build confidence in management skills, particularly for those just moving into more senior roles in the business, and this in turn can inspire them to become good role models to those just starting out.

Mentoring builds a culture of mutual respect Excellent mentoring relationships are built on mutual trust and respect between the mentor and mentee. Mentoring requires the mentor to get to know the apprentice and discuss their career aspirations as well as sometimes their life outside the business too. Mentoring builds a culture where each person’s contribution and career goals are valued, and where individuals are encouraged to take ownership of their learning and consider what skills they need to develop to best contribute to the business’ success.

Good mentoring skills can support good management skills Many of the skills associated with good mentoring can equally support good management skills too. Mentors learn to empathise with the apprentice, listen to their concerns and how it might impact their performance, and draw on their own experience and knowledge to support them in a constructive way. Ultimately mentoring aims to bring out the best in the apprentice, which in turn achieves the best results for the business too.

Does this ring true for your business? We’d love to feature examples of how mentoring has worked out for apprentices and mentors in your business, get in touch here.

If your business or organisation is interested in developing mentoring skills to support apprentices take a look at our mentoring apprentices training course here.

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Spotlight on…

Sam Margrave Sam Margrave recently joined the IOEE as an Academic Fellow. He is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Worcester Business School, an IOEE Centre of Excellence, and was a Local Government Councillor until recently standing down in May this year. He is also a Non-Executive Director at a large Housing Association, as well as undertaking PhD research to understand the policy makers behind the new devolved entrepreneurship policy, referring to them as Civic Entrepreneurs, or ‘Civicpreneurs’.

Sam also has Autism, ADHD and Dyslexia, and is passionate about inspiring people with challenges and disabilities to become entrepreneurs. This month we spoke to Sam about pioneering in politics, innovative teaching, and helping people to achieve their dreams.

Sam’s entrepreneurial streak was evident from a young age, starting his first business when he was only 15 years old, despite suffering from ME; Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. By the age of 16 he was going along to full Council Meetings, with his first ever question in the Council Chamber being about allowing candidates to stand at the age of 18: “I believe that if you are old enough to vote for the people that represent you, you should be allowed to represent others.”

By the time Sam was 21 in 2014 he was elected as a Councillor in England and Wales, making him the youngest Councillor in Britain, and a rarity on the political landscape. Today, whilst Sam is still politically active, he is also focusing much of his time on his PhD research, alongside his career as a lecturer. Sam says: “My PhD research is looking at how we can help local councils, enterprise partnerships

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and combined authorities to better support start-ups and small businesses. Entrepreneurship is vital in creating jobs and economic growth. When Councils keep business rates in the future, it will also be critical in funding local council services, from bin collections to social services.

I’m undertaking a significant body of research through my PhD: Unmasking the Civicpreneurs: Does Local Government Mean Business? - Understanding Councillors’ attitudes and experiences of entrepreneurship and policy implications. The aim of this study is to understand Local Government Councillors’ attitudes, experiences and exposure to entrepreneurship, using a modified version of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey, and to examine the predictive ability of attitudes and experience of Councillors in England on Venture creation. This includes such elements as looking at whether Councillors have backgrounds in entrepreneurship, and what this means for the Entrepreneurship Policy. Central Government used to make decisions about Entrepreneurship Policy, but they’ve devolved this from Whitehall to the Town Hall. Councillors will now make the important decisions that will ultimately determine whether entrepreneurs do well or not, and this is a huge responsibility.”

Sam’s drive and ambition is fuelled from his interest in representing people and making a difference “because I think things can be made better” - and he is motivated by a strong sense of social justice. Sam says: “After two decades involved in Local Government, being on the Youth Council, on the actual Council, and as a business person, I became frustrated with the lack of innovation and seeing the High Street decline.

Many entrepreneurs will complain they pay business rates, but don’t get anything back. The political system doesn’t seem to help entrepreneurs well and I want to challenge the views of Councillors. I believe that Councillors at Town and City Halls, Regional Assemblies, LEPs and Growthhubs are at the forefront of building an entrepreneurial economy. My research explores how support for start-ups and small businesses can create jobs and fuel economic growth. I want to influence policy decisions and bring about change. I want us to move towards an entrepreneurial economy where we create the right environment for people to start and run their own successful ventures. This is what motivates me.”

With so many different avenues of his entrepreneurialfocused career, Sam says that he works hard to stay focused on each element, and that whilst his passion for supporting entrepreneurship is influenced by positive economical impact, he is more driven by encouraging individuals to follow their dreams, and being part of making that dream become a reality. Sam says: “As an academic I seem to spend my life reading and its

really easy to drown in articles, to come up with lots of ideas and be carried away, so you have to learn how to really knuckle down and focus on one things at a time - yet it’s so exciting, I could really spend the rest of my life working on helping local Councils and communities support entrepreneurs to start and build successful businesses; because if they are successful, we are all successful.

“However, I’m especially inspired by seeing people achieve their individual dreams, and I’m inspired by the opportunities entrepreneurship can bring. In a world that’s really hard for young people, where people can’t imagine getting their dream job, then I say, why not create your dream job? Harness your creativity and turn what you are good at into an idea, into a business.

Entrepreneurship is one of the last bastions of social mobility, and getting to see my university students develop their business ideas and pitch their business plans is one of the biggest rewards of what I do.

“Like myself, many entrepreneurs have Autism, and as a disabled entrepreneur I want to encourage others and tell people that they can be anything they want to be. I want to inspire disabled people to start their own businesses, and make sure that there is proper support in place. I would also like to develop entrepreneurship education, so that it’s more accessible and inclusive.

I am also keen to develop innovative pedagogies, such as using board games to understand concepts that would otherwise be hard to reach for many students.”

Sam has recently become a Fellow of the IOEE, and he tells us what this new relationship will bring to his work, and his plans for the future as he moves forward: “I want to transform academic understanding of entrepreneurship within local government, and the importance of entrepreneurship policy within the Devolution Agenda, and I’m developing research that highlights those civic leaders in the past who have been the great entrepreneurs, so we can learn from them in how we approach the future. I want to bring the High Street to life again by improving policy and the voice of the business, and make changes so that entrepreneurs can flourish, because entrepreneurship is and should be for everyone.

“I also hope that I can use my experience of disability and faith to further develop entrepreneurship in those areas too, and if anybody reading this has an interest in these areas, please do get in touch. I would very much like to hear from you.”

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Understanding and Supporting Social Innovation: Bringing the Future Forward In 1985, Peter Drucker noted that ‘Today businesses, especially the large ones, simply will not survive in this period of rapid change and innovation unless they acquire entrepreneurial competence (Drucker, 1985, p. 132). Thirty years on, many commentators would agree that this quote is still highly relevant today – the only thing that has changed is the rate of change. This reflects the fundamental shifts which we are witnessing in economies, such as the UK, as a result of the economic recession of 2008/2009, demographic changes, technological developments and sociocultural shifts.

For example, demographic change is leading to greater age and cultural diversity within the workforce of the majority of businesses.

For the first time, businesses will have staff from four different generations who have different motivations, values and expectations around working patterns and management and leadership styles.

People are having to work longer and cope with personal change, such as ageing, whilst at work rather than during retirement. In turn, this creates a set of different learning and skills development needs and generates the need for innovative responses from businesses themselves, external providers of education and training and governments.

As a result, there is a growing interest in the concept of social innovation. This can be defined as ‘new strategies, concepts and ideas that businesses and organisations can introduce to meet the social needs of different internal and external stakeholders’.

However, the available evidence base suggests that there are a number of “need to know’s” in navigating the journey from idea to action in implementing social innovation at work.

SFEDI are leading an Erasmus Plus project (COOP-IN) which will develop a set of learning materials and resources to assist different groups of stakeholders in understanding and supporting social innovation. The overall aim of the project is to raise awareness of the opportunities and challenges in implementing social innovation at work by developing a social innovation training kit including a digital education game, a self-assessment tool and other learning materials.

In so doing, the project will work with vocational education trainers, business support agencies, mentors and coaches and networking

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organisations to encourage engagement with social innovation and facilitate use of resources to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in moving from idea to action in introducing social innovation.

The project consists of seven partner organisations from the UK, Cyprus, Ireland, Hungary, Portugal and Spain.

Over the next 18 months, the project will be developing: •

A social innovation training course for businesses and organisations and vocational and educational training (VET) professionals

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A digital education game which will develop understanding of social innovation and the strategies for developing and introducing social innovations

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A self-assessment tool for businesses and organisations to identify strengths and areas for development in managing social innovation

In addition, the project will be profiling businesses and organisations who have spotted opportunities for social innovation and who have successfully managed the journey to idea to action.

Case Study Sharon took to her friends and family to see who may have been going through the same thing, surprisingly the older woman said they “just got on with it” but they hadn’t worked at the time and friends of Sharon’s age did not seem to know anything about what to expect. From this experience Sharon created Miss Menopause and it was all based on the fact that everyone seems to be missing the menopause. Sharon is on a mission to educate and support organisations and their employees so it is OK to talk about the subject and support those woman who need it.

Miss Menopause provides three services in order to help raise awareness of issues related to the menopause and the taboo around talking about it at work:

One such case study is Sharon MacArthur, the founder of Miss Menopause. Sharon created Miss Menopause to fill the void of educational services needs by woman as they reach the menopause. Although most women will tell you that they had “the chat” to teach them about what would happen to their bodies as they reached puberty, the same cannot be said for the menopause.

A recent survey estimated that only three per cent of companies across the UK in 2017 were educating their workforce about the symptoms the menopause may bring.

It is estimated that in 15 years’ time the number of women working full time will equal that of men. Coupling this with the pensionable age changes of 2010 mean that woman are working for longer than even before. Evidence suggests that the large majority of women experience some sort of menopause with the average for this being 51 in the UK. However, some symptoms may begin years before and can last for up to a decade after, and in some cases, mental health issues can arise due to the menopause too.

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Miss Menopause for Women is a service for working women allowing the opportunity for participants to share stories in a fun an engaging way, learn about what is menopause and what to expect, how to deal with the menopause and develop a plan for when the time comes.

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Miss Menopause for Managers gives managers in businesses and organisations the opportunity to work through policies and case studies and develop a plan for how they will support team members going through menopause.

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Miss Menopause for HR Professionals will develop understanding around the employment law and the implications for supporting women going through the Menopause.

If you are interested in learning more about the project please visit http://coopinproject.eu/en/. If you are working with businesses and organisations to assist in understanding and supporting social innovation and you would like to explore ways of adding value to the project, please contact Leigh (leigh.sear@sfedi.co.uk)

When asked about her own story regarding the menopause Sharon said “About 12 months ago I began to feel exhausted. I just didn’t feel like me. Thing I could do without thinking suddenly became really difficult. I couldn’t remember names, I was tired all of the time. I felt anxious about meeting people and didn’t want to go out. Then the disturbed sleep began, ordinarily I could sleep on a clothes line but now I seemed to wake up every hour, leaving me feeling totally drained. I took to Google to figure out what was happening to me. After hours of research it dawned on me I was probably going through peri menopause. Why had no one warned me? Surely, I was too young? Sadly, I found out I wasn’t”.

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‘Enterprisingly Me’ is a monthly feature where you can follow my entrepreneurial adventures. Names have been changed to protect the innocent but everything you read really happened.

I hope my story inspires you to take your first steps, or if you already have, then it lets you know you’re not on your own. Starting and running a successful business isn’t about being perfect. It’s about loving what you’re doing, learning from your mistakes and keeping the faith!

After a lot of pain and frustration on my part we have undertaken a thorough review of our business practices and now have a plan as to what we need to do to help us become more efficient and effective.

speculate to accumulate’... only this time its speculating with time rather than money! I realise that ‘time is money’ but I am convincing myself that this really is time and money well spent.

Don’t you love those two words? I’m told that being efficient is doing things right and being effective is doing the right things ………. WHAT???

Time really does seem to run away with me. Take yesterday – I’d planned to meet with Arlette to work on our plan. I dropped my daughter off at school to discover it was cookery day and she hadn’t mentioned that she had a recipe in her bag and that I was meant to buy the ingredients for her to take to school that day. So I had to go to the nearest shop to buy the ingredients – I mean, who keeps self raising flour, baking powder and sultanas in the cupboard at home just in case you fancy knocking together a few scones on a quiet Sunday morning ready for Sunday afternoon tea? I’m usually too busy recovering from a hectic Saturday shopping, dropping and picking my little princess up from birthday parties, swimming, dancing or whatever else takes the princess’s fancy. The last thing on my mind is baking scones – obviously!! So with duly purchased ingredients in hand I dash back to the school only to find that princess has also forgotten her apron that I am assuming is in some crumpled mess on the floor of her pig sty (which sometimes masquerades as a bedroom). So home I go to find the apron and after a quick spray with Febreze and a run over with the iron I am back at the school, now with apron in hand, just in time for the cookery lesson. The scones had better be good and the learning experience enough for my princess to either become a world-renowned patissiere or at the

Hopefully, putting our plan into place will make us more efficient but how will I know if I/we am/are being effective?

What does being effective really mean? I am taking note of the recent conversation I had with my new mentor when we discussed ways of improving the way we do things by introducing clear systems and processes. As he said, its fine keeping everything in my head but what if something was to happen to me, how would everyone else in the business know what to do and how to do it?

I’m sure they’d manage but it’s a risk we probably don’t want to take at this early stage of trying to grow our business.

So, boring as it all seems to me, this is probably the right way to go – thank goodness I have Arlette who has agreed to help. It transpires that she loves all this systems and processes stuff!! Just as well as it looks like it will be very time consuming but I keep thinking about the mantra I’ve used almost all of my life ‘you have to

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very least to start her own highly successful afternoon tea business. Phew…….. even thinking about that experience makes me exhausted and that was just the start of things to come.

I arrived at the office almost an hour late to find that Arlette had started without me – not such a bad thing really. There had been two calls from business owners enquiring about the new course we are running for owner managers and a call from the fire officer wanting to come out to check the premises to see if they meet with the fire regulations. What are the fire regulations for new office buildings anyway?

I ring the business owners first as don’t want them to think I’m not interested in them. They sound lovely and after a really long chat with both of them I agree to them popping into the office later that afternoon. I know I should have said no but they are potential new customers and they seemed so keen to come and meet us that I didn’t want to put them off. I must admit I forgot all about the fire officer and so was a bit taken aback when she just arrived at lunchtime with clipboard in hand asking to meet me. It seems she had actually made a prior appointment which hadn’t been put into the diary and had been ringing that morning to confirm that it was still OK to come. Oh dear, how many reasons do we need to confirm that something has to change in the way we run our business. Thank goodness Arlette is beavering away in her office looking at ways that we can stop this type of thing from happening yet again. I think some of the problem is to do with each of us being unclear about our role and responsibilities so maybe that’s a good place to start – Arlette has probably already worked that one out for herself!

wasn’t as if I had any control over the circumstances of the day – or did I? My intentions were good and I suppose we made a start on doing things right (well Arlette did) but was I actually doing the right things?

I know that things happen that sometimes can’t be avoided but if only I’d: • •

•

•

Checked my daughters timetable the night before and asked her if there was anything needed for school the next day Briefed the staff as to how to deal with enquiries about the new course – this is something Marie could have dealt with if I’d invested the time with her explaining a bit more about the new work Checked that all appointments had been included in the main diary and discussed with the staff who is best to deal with each of them – as it happens Claire could have shown the fire officer around the building Stuck to my guns in terms of working with Arlette instead of allowing myself to be sidetracked into meeting and chatting to likeminded business owners and then using that as an excuse for not working on the plan – I wonder why?

The right thing yesterday was to work on the plan. Note to self - need to try harder at doing the right things and delegating more to my more than competent team.

Me x

So needless to say I didn’t get a chance to work on the plan with Arlette and just had to let her get on with it on her own – I know this is not ideal but what could I do? It

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Business Basics Fund

In a speech to the CBI on the 26th June Small Business Minister Andrew Griffiths unveiled a new £8m fund to boost the productivity and performance of small businesses in England.

are the backbone of our economy, with more than 1,000 new businesses starting up every day, and it is vital that we support them to grow through our modern Industrial Strategy.

Boosting national productivity and increasing workers’ earning power forms a key part of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy and the Business Basics Fund, run by BEIS in partnership with Innovate UK, will help businesses, charities, trade organisations and public sector organisations support small businesses in adopting tried and tested technologies and management techniques.

“The Business Basics Fund will test new and innovative ways of supporting small businesses to take advantage of technologies and management practices – giving small business leaders the tools and support they need to continue to thrive.”

Once the projects are launched, the Government will then work with leading experts to evaluate the effectiveness of each project in boosting productivity, helping to inform future policies.

Research from the CBI suggests that by encouraging more businesses to take advantage of leading technologies, management practices and business support services – such as cloud computing, mobile technology and e-purchasing – the UK economy could receive a £100 billion boost and see a 5% reduction in income inequality.

Small Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said: “Small businesses

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Matthew Fell, CBI UK Chief Policy Director, said: “Put simply, UK businesses must do more to improve their productivity to get themselves match fit to compete globally in the years ahead.

Low uptake of the nuts and bolts technologies of today is a key feature of the productivity puzzle that can, and must, be tackled.

“UK business technology adoption levels are close to the EU average but far behind the front runners, lagging nearly a decade behind the Danes. “The new Industrial Strategy can be the perfect vehicle to get to grips with this missing piece of the jigsaw.”

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of innovation foundation Nesta, said: “I welcome the launch of the Business Basics Fund, and the commitment to using experiments. Nesta has advocated and run experiments in business support across the world

through our Innovation Growth Lab which has worked with a dozen governments. With this move, the UK is taking a lead in applying experimental methods to boosting productivity – much the best way of ensuring that in the long run public money goes on programmes that really do work.�

The launch of the fund is the latest in a number of new measures introduced by the Government to boost business productivity, including a review launched last month on how best to raise business productivity. The Business Productivity Review Call for Evidence is open until 6 July 2018 and the Government is encouraging workers, businesses, trade associations and other interested parties to contribute their views to it.

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Custom Planet Apprenticeship Q&A Can you provide a quick overview of your business? Custom Planet is a printwear and branding company specialising in screen printed t-shirts/clothing, embroidered workwear and promotional products.

When did the business first start recruiting apprentices? We started recruiting around 5 years ago and have a steady flow in and out every year since.

Why did your business consider offering an apprenticeship? At the start it was because it was the only way we could recruit new employees that we could afford to pay! We were definitely attracted to the training wage and the financial support you could receive by hiring an apprentice. It also allowed us to train someone from scratch in a field where there aren’t a lot of fully trained people available in the market. It was an easy choice between training someone on a training wage or training someone on a full wage.

How does the recruitment process work in your business?

How much help is offered by the training provider? We basically advertised for the role and the provider found us a list of applicants. We pick the best ones for interviews and go from there. The training provider comes in every month to have a chat and go over the academic side of things while we provide proof of what has been learned on the job so far.

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What are / were your first impressions of apprenticeships?

And the apprentices you’ve recruited? Most apprentices don’t have any experience in the workplace so it sometimes takes a while for them to come out of their shell. We try to be as fair and patient as possible and make certain allowances in the first few months. We quickly realised that we needed to have more structure around the training of new apprentices and that it’s not just about training them to do a particular job but also about bring out their personality, communication and confidence in the workplace.

How did you help your apprentices settle into the business?

We try to keep things light at the start, introduce them to everyone in the company and assign them to a mentor who is responsible for training and nurturing their development. We let them know from the start that there is a full time position ready and waiting for them at the end of the apprenticeship if they apply themselves and learn the skills to become an asset to the company within the 6-12 months that we have them. We try to have social events every couple of months and make sure that everyone feels integrated into the overall communication between all departments and staff using whatsapp. We encourage communication by having a roll call every morning when everyone talks about what their day will entail. Although shy at first, forcing everyone to do this every day very quickly makes apprentices feel comfortable when addressing other staff and the group as a whole.

Do your apprentices have any specific support – induction process, mentors, additional training, etc, that you feel brings additional benefit to the business and apprentice? As soon as they start they are introduced to their mentor and asked to choose their own uniform so that they feel part of the team.

We lay out the plan for the apprenticeship and show them what they will be learning and when. As with all of our employees we try to show them the workings and figures behind the business so they understand how their role has an effect on the business and the targets we have to hit as a company and as individuals. Part of the plan is showing them what level they should be at by certain dates which gives them a time line of progress and hopefully some motivation to hit the ground running. Apprentices generally start by doing the really boring and messy jobs and if they can stick through it they get their reward by learning the more interesting tasks and how to run machinery.

How far has your apprentice progressed in your business to date? How far have previous apprentices progressed?

Our current apprentice is doing really well. She is now fully trained on our embroidery machines so is now moving into the warehouse to lean that side of the business. I have no doubt that by the time she finishes her apprenticeship in June she will be joining us as a full-time member of staff. Previous apprentices have varied in their progress we had 2 others that have passed and were with us for 5 years and have only just recently left to go onto bigger and better things which were more in line with what they wanted to achieve and gaining the experience they did with us is what allowed them to find work easily in their chosen fields. We have another who is currently working full time with us and has gone on to learn every aspect of printing and has made himself invaluable to the company.

On the other hand we have had a few that we had to let go half way through their apprenticeship for anything from bad attendance to vandalism and just not being very good at the job and making too many mistakes by not following procedures and processes that are put in place to prevent such mistakes.

or if you can just let them get on with things with more of a guiding influence to improve their skills. When we initially held interviews of the 4 people we asked to interview only one showed up, that made it pretty easy to pick who the next apprentice was going to be! Another time we offered the job to someone who very quickly rejected the offer as it would mean that her dad would lose his benefits. Crazy! There are some really great kids out there who just want to work and create a life for themselves but on the other hand there are some who just aren’t interested in learning or working. You can tell pretty quickly which type you have and it becomes easier to spot this at the interview stage the more you get into it.

What do you see as being the main benefits to your business?

I would say the main benefit is that you get a really skilled and fully integrated employee by the end of the process. A lot of the time you are giving someone a chance to get work where otherwise they would really struggle. I believe this creates a loyal member of staff who really understands the business and where they fit into it. It feels really good to see the progression and improvement of people and know that you have been a big part of it. I was really proud when the two lads who have been with us for 5 years that we trained went off to jobs that they really wanted to do.

What are your ambitions for the future of apprenticeships and / or the future of your apprentice in your business? Becka’s future is bright, she is really enjoying what she is doing and is 99% nailed on to become a full employee in June. We are looking to take on a new apprentice in April and have been taking on a new apprentice every year for the last 5+ years so I can’t see that changing. What we have discovered is that the balance has to be right between senior/experienced staff and apprentices/recently promoted apprentices. We have big plans for the next 5 years so we will carry on adding experienced staff and apprentices every year.

What challenges, if any, have you found with recruiting apprentices? It’s sometimes difficult when things get really busy to make the time to train them. They have to be able to use their own initiative and be left to get on with things.

You find out pretty quickly if you are going to have to babysit

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