5 Tech Hiring Challenges, and How Apprenticeships Can Help

While the pandemic had a significant impact on employment, one longer-term trend remains unchanged: Companies continue to have major challenges with recruiting personnel to fill their empty seats in tech roles. There are many reasons why this is so, but here’s a look at five major issues … and how apprenticeships help organizations address them.

Lack of Qualified Personnel

Traditional recruitment methods produce traditional results, leaving a sense that the same pool of candidates is perpetually recycled with everyone just moving to a new seat every so often. Breaking this cycle requires fishing in some different ponds, and that’s where apprenticeships really shine.

Apprentices largely come from nontraditional sources, including people who’ve chosen not to pursue the expensive four-year college path and those returning to the workforce after military service or raising a family. And they’re diverse in more than just background, with women and minorities represented at well above industry averages.

Recruiting Costs

If you’ve hired personnel through recruiters, you’re familiar with the hefty price tag (20 percent of base pay, maybe more). And that might be fine if it led to long-term employees, but in the tech sector changing jobs frequently is almost a badge of honor.

The apprenticeship model is completely different: Candidates are paid a reduced salary while they learn on the job. And they’re trained not only on the IT skills and certifications the work requires, but on the soft skills that make them great employees. Not only do the numbers make more sense, the apprenticeship model leads to…

Engagement and Loyalty

As noted above, keeping your tech roles filled can feel like an unending game of musical chairs as candidates jump to the next opportunity that offers a few more dollars, and the next, and the next.

Our employers enjoy a 95% long-term retention rate after program completion. Why? Apprentices are reared in their specific company culture and are grateful to – and loyal to – the organizations that nurture their careers and give them the early opportunity to learn and grow.

Alignment with Company Goals

One major pitfall with candidates from traditional recruiters is that your new hire comes with old habits, not all of them good. Getting someone who’s had significant experience elsewhere to fit into your own organizational culture can be a big challenge.

Apprentices are immediately put on a track not only to check off the technical certifications your position requires, but to do their jobs your way. Weekly check-ins with both a Franklin Success Coach and an internal manager assure that tasks are not just completed but are done to your specifications.

Adjusting to Remote Work

As if successful recruiting weren’t already enough of a challenge, last year’s sudden shift to remote work added a new degree of difficulty. Recruiting, onboarding and training are much harder when they can’t be done in person.

We’ve been very successful in doing all those things remotely since long before it was a necessity. We’ve been able to supply organizations with great candidates who become great apprentices and employees by virtual means because our model was designed to do just that.