This week marks the 10th National Apprenticeship Week (6-10 March), which aims to bring together employers and apprentices from across England to celebrate the success of apprenticeships over the past decade and help encourage even more people to choose this fast track to a career.

From April this year The Apprenticeship Levy will see employers pay into a fund that can only be used for official apprenticeship training, with the government committing to delivering three million more roles through this programme by 2020. For employers this offers the chance to think differently about skills and young talent.

Traditionally, firms in the property industry have looked to university milk rounds to recruit for their graduate training programmes, but in recent years there has been a wide recognition of the benefit of connecting with school students and their parents, in order to raise the profile and awareness of the real estate profession and the options available for those not heading to university.

In the short term, there is no denying that the cost to businesses will be higher than the levy alone. Teams must deliver time-consuming training on the job to those who have come straight from education. Rather than recruiting based on grades, proven skills and work experience, employers are instead tasked with reinventing how they select candidates, finding new ways to gauge motivation, attitude and receptiveness.

In the long term, however, apprentices are trained specifically for the job they do, specialising in surveying from day one working closely with directors, gaining exposure to clients, working on site, carrying out viewings just as any graduate would.

For this reason, we have found that Savills apprentices demonstrate considerable loyalty, commitment and tenacity as they work towards part time degrees, giving them the same MRICS status as their graduate peers.

Overall, there is a lot to be gained from taking on apprentices. There will no doubt be challenges along the way on both sides, but teaching and mentoring young people can be a rewarding process for all involved. As more and more school leavers choose to forgo university, now is the time to snap up this type of talent who have the potential to become the business leaders of tomorrow.

In 2017 Savills will maintain its commitment to recruiting and training apprentices in roles across its UK business in areas such as administration, IT, human resources, client accounting, building surveying, property management, retail and valuation as we continues to recognise the benefit of teaching young people on the job.

Further information

Contact Savills Graduates