"...The Way to Work team provides a specialist service which gives you the best chance of recruiting, retaining and developing young employees..."
Why should I recruit an apprentice?
Recruiting young apprentices is essential for the success and future growth of your company. Training, support and development ensures young people can make reliable and effective employees.
How do I recruit an apprentice?
Call Way to Work and speak to our Operations Manager, who will explain the process and arrange to visit your premises and help you formulate a detailed job description, and appropriate terms and conditions. Applicants are then pre-screened by us and pre-selected before being sent to you for interview, so you can choose the most suitable candidate for the job.
How is the training provided?
An NVQ programme is carefully matched to each job and will develop general and advanced skills over about two years.
What about my existing young employees?
Many young people already in work benefit from training. Way to Work will customise this to fit their career development within the company.
How can I afford such a high quality service?
The service is subsidised by the Learning and Skills Council. Therefore you only pay a weekly fee of £16. However you must agree to Way to Work's Employer Contract.
How it all works?
The recruitment
Way to Work will pre-select a group of between 4 and 6 candidates and organise interviews for you. The shortlisted candidates will be asked to send their CV directly to by email, and call you to confirm that they will be attending their interview.
Once the first interview has taken place you must call Way to Work to let us know who you would like to offer a 2nd interview or work trial to. We advise selecting no more than 2 or 3 for this stage of the recruitment process.
After the work trial has been completed, you must contact us again to advise us of your decision to recruit one of the selected candidates. We then notify the successful young person and speak to all the unsuccessful candidates giving them appropriate feedback, and guidance. If references are required before they start, we can also assist in obtaining names of referees from the young person.
Before the apprentice starts
The successful candidate will spend around an hour at Way to Work to discuss starting employment, and health and safety in the workplace. They will also be required to take literacy and numeracy tests if they do not have GCSE's grade C or above in English and Maths gained within the last 5 years.
The 3 week settling-in period
A member of the Way to Work team will phone you and the new apprentice each week to check that you are both happy. Learners are not expected to do any apprenticeship training at this point except complete a health and safety workbook which they have been given. Attendance, punctuality, performance and support will be discussed by phone. If anything is concerning you please phone us immediately on 0208 487 5383 or email us at waytowork@richmond.gov.uk
The 3 week visit
A member of the Way to Work team will visit your workplace at a time agreed with you. The purpose of this visit is to ensure that you and the young person are happy for employment to be confirmed and the apprenticeship training to begin. If all is well a brief overview of the training will be given usually lasting 45 to 60 minutes. Our training partners, Troy Solutions, will then be informed and an NVQ Assessor selected for your apprentice.
The first NVQ assessor visit
The assessor will phone you or the supervising manager to make a first appointment shortly after the 3 week visit has taken place. During this initial visit with you and the apprentice, a timescale for the apprenticeship and optional units for the NVQ will be discussed and agreed. Your assigned assessor will explain the apprenticeship in more detail and set the first work.
Time out of the workplace
Your apprentice will only be required to spend some time away from the workplace to be taught and to take tests if required. This is unlikely to be more than 8 days during the entire first year's apprenticeship. The exact timing of these activities should be negotiated with your assessor.
Apprenticeship training in the workplace
Your assessor will visit every month for approximately 2 hours. You should be available for a few minutes at the end of each visit to help plan activities and give and receive feedback on performance. During the rest of the month the learner should be given up to 6 hours per week to work on their apprenticeship. The timing of these hours is up to you, but more than 3 hours at a time is probably inadvisable.
