Why employ an apprentice? What are the benefits and what does Tempdent offer? These are some of the questions that Dan Redland, Tempdent’s Business Development Director gets asked on a daily basis. In order to answer these and more questions, we thought we would do a short interview with Dan.
Q: Dan, why should a company employ an apprentice?
“Investing in an apprentice is a great way of attracting enthusiastic talent with fresh ideas. Apprenticeships are a tried and tested way to recruit new staff, retrain or up-skill existing staff. Also they can be done in your workplace, minimising disruption and maximising impact. We also find that hiring an apprentice is a great way of of increasing loyalty as the learner has started their career with the practice and has more of a sense of duty to the employer who gave them their first start. Of course there is also the opportunity to get a generous £1,000 government incentive too if you take on a 16-18 year old apprentice!
Q: How much does it cost to have an apprentice?
“Apprenticeships are excellent value. If you’re a non-levy employer you only pay 10% of course costs with the Government paying 90%. And if you’re an SME employer (under 50 PAYE staff), you can access free training for 16-18-year olds, plus you will receive a £1,000 incentive for each 16-18-year-old apprentice taken on.”
“Also employers can choose to pay the apprenticeship wage of £3.50 per hour for the first 12 months which makes the cost of funding an apprentices wage manageable. Having said that we would always recommend taking in to account the apprentices personal circumstances when agreeing their wage.”
Q: What does Tempdent offer?
“We have been delivering high quality Apprenticeships in Dental Nursing (previously NVQs) since 1999. Our programmes are available nationally, delivered on our innovative and interactive blended learning platform. Each person has access to their assessor at all times no matter where they are based in the UK. We also offer free Trainee Dental Nurse Apprenticeship Recruitment and would typically expect to fill your vacancy with a highly suited government funded eligiblecandidate within 2-4 weeks.”
We’ve also introduced a Foundation in Practice (FIP) programme that helps to prepare learners for working in practice alongside their learning. The 12-week FIP covers all of the things that the GDC & CQC want covered at induction helping the learner to prepare to work in the surgery. It’s a great way of inducting the learner as well as testing their commitment before commencing with the apprenticeship.”
“We also offer a new Apprenticeship for Dental Practice Managers which is proving really popular.”
Q: What are the key strengths of the Tempdent Apprenticeship?
“I would say that our strength lies in our specialist focus solely on the Dental industry and our excellent and very stable teaching faculty. Most of our tutors & assessors have been with us since we started delivering the programmes and are really committed to their learners.”
“We are really proud of our success rates for the Apprenticeship. We have proven to be a high-quality apprenticeship provider, with success rates consistently in excess of 85%. Our current 16/17 success rates are at 92.8%, with a timely success of 90%. Our pass rates are consistently outstanding especially when compared with the national average of 68% success rates and 59.7% timeliness. This means that when practices use our services they can be confident their learners will qualify and in good time.”
Q: What do you enjoy most about delivering the Apprenticeship?
“It’s really rewarding to work with the apprenticeships. You really get the sense that you are contributing to something really special in giving young people a long term viable career and their first start in the dental profession. Many of our learners come back to us for CPD or to complete post registration training in Sedation, Radiography, Oral Health Education or Orthodontic Nursing and some have even gone on to become Hygienists and even Dentists.”
For more information about how to recruit an apprentice please contact Dan Redland on 020 8371 6700, or visit our website for more details.
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