From office to apprenticeship

walwyn1978

ReadingTim wrote: »

Perhaps, given your expertise in this area, you could tell us how many employers voluntarily chose to pay apprentices more than they legally have to, because it's my suspicion that it ain't many.

I'd love to be proved wrong, but I suspect I won't be.

It tends to break down as: the ones fresh out of school and college are usually taken on as apprentices on an apprentice wage. The older ones (post 25) tend to be on a ‘normal’ wage albeit you are correct some employers regard it purely as cheap labour and will take an apprentice on, pay them buttons, wait the 18 months/2 years til they complete their qualifications, make redundant, take on a new apprentice on buttons and start the cycle again. We try not to work with employers like that, however some of our competitors aren’t so picky....

I don’t know the exact stats because it’s not in the public domain. But your basic premise - I you’re on an apprenticeship you won’t take home loads - is correct in that only when you get up to the Level 4 and 5 stuff, where you are already in a more senior position within the organisation anyway, would your wages have progressed much beyond NLW or similar. But it doesn’t follow that you automatically do an apprenticeship on sub £4 p/h.