The UK’s digital skills gap has long affected the technology sector but has grown in recent years as companies across every sector of the economy compete for candidates with digital skills, leaving an even greater shortage of talent.
IBM is a leading cloud platform and cognitive solutions company, serving clients in more than 170 countries. Struggling to recruit enough people with the right skills, IBM took matters into their own hands. Instead of relying on finding candidates in the market, IBM decided to align their recruitment and learning and development strategies to overcome the gap in the market by investing in skills from the bottom up.
IBM train apprentices to meet their evolving skills needs
IBM introduced apprenticeships in 2010, beginning with a pilot cohort of Level 3 technical apprentices. The choice to invest in apprentices brought many advantages. 80% of the training takes place on the job, meaning that apprentices are building relevant skills for the business from day one. As apprenticeship standards are generic, IBM has the flexibility to train apprentices in the specific skills the company is lacking, with on-the-job training able to adapt to meet the business’ evolving needs. Once success was proved, IBM scaled up the programme and now train more than 280 apprentices in the UK, largely centred around digital services.
Apprenticeships help to create a sense of community, boosting long-term retention
Launching the apprenticeship programme has brought several benefits. As well as significantly reducing the need to recruit high demand skills from the market, it has also helped overall retention levels – 96% of apprentices stay with the company after completing their training. Jenny Taylor, UK Foundation Leader at IBM, reflects that the company has fostered a strong sense of community among apprentices during their training which has helped to boost motivation and generate retention, with many looking to undertake further in-house training. She also notes the positive impact on productivity – the on-the-job nature of apprenticeships means they become productive as early as week three, quickly earning their keep.
IBM’s investment in skills has resulted in a strong r
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