How we built an award-winning apprenticeship programme

Apprenticeship programmes are often associated with large organisations. But this shouldn’t be the case. Any size of organisation can create an apprenticeship programme, providing opportunities for young people and benefiting from developing the team your business needs to succeed. As an SME, we are proud to say that we have an apprenticeship programme – The Software Development Degree Apprenticeship. To inspire other organisations to do the same, we thought it would be useful to share the what, why and how we went about building an apprenticeship programme and how it became award-winning along the way!

We are a small web development and technology business based in a small town in West Oxfordshire. There are 13 of us and 5 members of the team are apprentices.

There was a 2-fold challenge that we wanted to solve:

1. As our business grew, we needed to think about how we could attract good people and, in turn, how we’d invest in their development and how we’d retain them. Software development is our core competency, and programming talent is hard to find. We don’t have enough qualified software developers in the UK, let alone near us.
2. We wanted to create opportunities for young people. It’s really hard for inexperienced would-be software developers to find a job. It’s also difficult for young people to find work outside of big cities, particularly in the technology sector.

So, we came to a decision to develop our own talent, and to put opening up opportunities for young people at the heart of our business.

We took the time to map out what we wanted the programme to do. Consequently, we are crystal clear in our belief that:

• Apprenticeships are a core talent path. It’s not an add-on. They are apprentices, but they are also junior developers, and a vital part of our team.
• Our programme is a whole team commitment. There’s a Programme Leader, but everyone in the Olamalu team is involved in mentoring and coaching the apprentices. We firmly believe that the success of the programme is everyone’s success. The growth of the business and the growth of our team’s skills go hand in hand with team members taking on increasingly demanding leadership roles.
• We are laying the foundation for our apprentices to go on to be leaders. We want them to have not just the technical skills, but the skills that will help them to grow into bigger roles that have a broader impact.

With the strategy in place, we designed the delivery of the apprenticeship programme around 4 areas.

We’ve created an environment that allows an apprentice to feel that they belong right from day one and gives them the support structure to help them succeed.

Team relationships are a crucial part of this. As part of their induction, the apprentice interviews every member of the team. This is a valuable exercise in getting to know each other and establishing the important principle that help, advice and guidance is always available throughout the team.

Each apprentice is assigned a mentor who is just one step ahead on the programme - someone who’s recently been in their position and can answer any question they have. We also offer external personal development training to help them adjust into the workplace.

This is both the academic learning done through the training provider, which for us is the Open University, and the on-the-job learning that happens every day. We establish individual learning and development objectives for each apprentice every six months, informed by their performance on the job and their next steps along their career path.

On a daily basis, apprentices are coached by more experienced team members through practical problems. We encourage everyone to see these interactions as an opportunity to further learning rather than just fix the issue. They are part of the broader technical and business learning that we do together as a team.

We want our apprentices to have a rich experience with a breadth and depth of knowledge and skills. We ensure that they get the full range of work, are constantly challenged and given opportunities to develop new skills. We actively involve apprentices across the business from strategic planning to operational discussions.

On each new customer project, we consider what learning opportunities there are and who would benefit, based on a detailed understanding of each apprentice’s journey. We also look for opportunities beyond our regular work activities. Apprentices get involved in careers events at local schools to build their confidence in public speaking, and they develop their people skills by coaching work experience students.

It’s important to us that all apprentices who successfully complete the programme have rewarding career opportunities post-apprenticeship.  Luckily, one of the advantages of being a small business is that we can tailor jobs to the strengths and interests of individuals, enabling them to grow, increasing engagement and encouraging retention.  One of our apprentices showed a talent for mentoring and coaching, so we enabled him to take on responsibility for the learning and development of the newest apprentices. He’s now moving into a team management role. Another is focusing on broadening and deepening his technical skills. And a third is interested in technical sales, and we’re looking at how we can allow him to develop the skills that would allow him to try that path.

“Going to university never really appealed to me. I found this apprenticeship with Olamalu, and I haven’t looked back. They gave me an energy and passion for web technology.”

“I want to give back to this company after what they’ve given me. I want to be one of the driving forces of this company’s growth.”

Last year we were crowned SME apprentice employer of the year in the South-East regional final for SME apprentice employer of the year and then came highly commended in the national final.  For such a small company, we are over the moon to have been recognised for giving young people a fabulous start to an exciting career. And nurturing the business leaders of the future.