Zone’s technical talent acquisition manager, Kasia Oslowska, reflects on implementing the agency’s first ever apprenticeship scheme…
Finding the right talent to drive Zone’s success is a challenge which will resonate through the industry. More than ever, it’s crucial we find new ways of identifying talent. The first step for Zone is to diversify our talent channels.
As people progress through their careers, it leaves a void of entry-level roles. Traditionally we would have recruited employees with some level of previous experience to backfill these roles. The problem with that is it creates knock-on challenges which come with overqualified and unfulfilled staff.
Enter the Apprenticeship Levy
The Apprenticeship Levy is a government programme aimed at encouraging employers to start apprenticeship schemes. While it’s had mixed success on a national level, it has provided Zone with the perfect chance to diversify our talent channels and address our entry-level skills conundrum.
As an organisation we created a push target of three apprentice software developer hires. Achieving this would take six weeks of planning, a well-attended assessment day and some fantastic support from our technical directors. Without them being internal programme champions and ring-fencing time for key stakeholders to be part of discussions and delivery, the apprenticeship scheme would have failed before it had even started.
Building the vision into a feasible scheme required support from throughout the organisation. To ensure we were investing in the right people we enrolled team members from disciplines including HR, technology, leadership, project management and UX. This multi-disciplinary team would help create a rounded insight into each apprentice candidate.
Working in a fast-paced, customer experience-focused agency often means time for internal projects is at a premium. So it came as no surprise that this was the biggest hurdle to overcome.
In the run-up to the assessment day I ran 10 hours of workshops with the stakeholders as we planned activities and drew up success criteria. Fitting in these extra responsibilities around our vital client work is no mean feat so I’d like to thank everyone who has been part of this apprenticeship journey.
Running the assessment day was one of the most satisfying and rewarding days I’ve experienced working at Zone. The apprentices who took part were fantastic, both in attitude and capability. Giving someone a chance to build a career around something they are passionate about is why we started the scheme — and to be able to offer three candidates a place made it extra worthwhile.
Creating, implementing and maintaining an apprenticeship scheme brings significant challenges, as I have come to find out. That said, it pales into insignificance when I see the hunger, drive and success from our apprentices. It’s fantastic to see what we have started — here’s to the next round!
