Many companies today are dealing with ageing workforces and skills shortages, and to build a brighter future, companies are looking at other methods to develop and upskill their workforce.
Waterside is a specialist provider of advanced apprenticeships for industry, helping develop the next generation of engineers, process operators and science technicians for a wide range of organisations across the North West.
Our assessor and training teams are highly experienced in their fields. They constantly push our apprentices to achieve the highest standards of competence, in order to become valuable members of your workforce. We are very proud of a number of apprentices being graded Distinctions overall for their academic qualifications and End Point Assessment.
The main benefits of our apprenticeship programmes are:
- We incorporate additional technical training that goes beyond standard apprenticeship. The extra training can be tailored to suit your company. During our foundation training, the apprentice can attend full time 5 days a week, 3 days per week or 1 day release helping to mould an apprentice to your business.
- We have strong success rates and almost all our apprentices go on to full time employment with their sponsoring employers.
- You will have highly skilled individuals on completion of the apprenticeship, specifically trained with the core skills required by your business.
- We invest in the personal development of the apprentices, so that they gain transferable skills to make them valuable members of your workforce.
- Our review system operates every six weeks, so that we very closely monitor and guide the apprentices in their development.
- We are passionate about manufacturing, electrical and mechanical engineering, three of the fundamental building blocks of industry and our particular fields of expertise.
In return you will invest in;
- a higher skilled workforce, developing your organisation to fill skills gaps already existing as apprenticeships help develop current skills gaps within with organisation.
- able to develop existing employees by upskilling or reskilling using apprenticeships to develop those employees to develop.
- investing in people helps your staff retention data, resulting in more motivated staff keeping people with new and key skills to fill your skills gap areas.
- increase quality and productivity.
What programmes are available?
Waterside focusses on Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing as well as Engineering Design Apprenticeships. Since the introduction of new standards in 2017, we have selected a number of core packages that match these five areas.
These include;
- Science Manufacturing Technician
- Science Industries Maintenance Technician
- Maintenance and Operations Engineering Technician
- Engineering Design and Draughtsperson
How do I find an apprentice?
At Waterside, we carry out a chargeable on-boarding service of recruitment and selection for each specific vacancy. We carry out targeted advertising and post vacancies on relevant websites including the Government Find an Apprenticeship Service linking to your Digital account to promote your company vacancy with local schools and colleges.
Our applications commence from as early as December. The earlier you can confirm your vacancy detail, the earlier we can promote your vacancy and start recruiting for your apprentice.
We work with all local schools to raise awareness of the great opportunities in engineering and industry.
Our selection process incorporates initial application, multiple aptitude tests and a first interview before we select candidates for final interview with an employer, ensuring you get the very best candidates for selection.
We put strong emphasis on finding the right individuals for your company from the very start, so that both the apprentices and your company can get maximum benefit from the programme.
A full breakdown of our On Boarding Recruitment Service can be found here.
You can of course recruit your own apprentice using your own internal systems, however, the candidate will need to attend our initial assessment tests to ensure suitability for a Level 3 programme prior to entry to the apprenticeship.
Do I need to employ the apprentice, what should I pay them?
Yes, under the new apprenticeship systems introduced in 2017, employers will have to employ the apprentice and provide an apprenticeship employment contract. You will also need to pay the apprentice the appropriate rate of pay for their age. During year 1 of the apprenticeship, you can defer to the NMW Apprentice rate for year 1, however, after year 1, you must pay the apprentice the appropriate rate for their age as provided by the NMW rate.
How do we start the process?
If you are interested in growing your workforce by recruiting an apprentice for your organisation, then please contact a member of the Apprenticeship Team on 01744 616837 or email; [email protected] to make an enquiry.
One of our team will be happy to complete an initial meeting with you to establish your business requirements and to select the right standard for your business and the job role the apprentice will be completing. Waterside will complete a proposal on completion of the initial meeting to outline our apprenticeship services.
