Partner Article

Millennials are transforming apprenticeships

This week is the 10th National Apprentice Week, which aims to celebrate the success of apprenticeships across the country, highlight the impact apprentices are having on businesses and encourage more young people to choose apprenticeships as a step to a good career.

“Apprenticeship programmes have evolved significantly over the last decade, states Elliot Gowans, VP EMEA, D2L. “With the growth of social media and online learning, how young apprentices learn their trade and consume content has changed. Indeed, millennials are driving a transformation within the education industry and apprenticeships with the use of social platforms such as Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. In their day-to-day life they increasingly expect fast, easy access to content wherever they are, which is spilling over into the workplace. There is now a large gap between the traditional way of learning and delivering training via the digital tools that young people can identify with.

Continued Gowans: “Modern day apprenticeships are subsequently challenged with balancing the demand for faster learning and instant gratification through digital tools with the old guard of learning and using experienced leaders to impart what they know. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are becoming more and more crucial in managing this shift, enabling educators to deliver a combination of classroom and online learning so that apprentices can take advantage and learn from both types of training.

Gowans also argues that organisations also need to recognise the role apprentices will play in the digital transformation of their business.

“There’s no question that over the next few decades, companies will be forced to adopt more digital processes; any that fail to do so will fall short, both in terms of productivity and talent. As they become increasingly digitised, companies will not only need to be more innovative and creative in their market offerings, but they will need to ensure that they can attract, develop and motivate strong performers. Expectations are high. Millennials entering the workforce want to use and hone their digital skills, and will assume that employers will recognise this and have tools in place that will enable them to make full use of their expertise. It’s important that businesses are exploiting technologies available that can help accommodate and advance the future generation of workers’ skills now.

“Apprentices today are facing a tough battle – once qualified they are confronted with an extremely competitive workforce that is steadily shrinking with the growth of automation, globalisation and robotics. Not only do they need to finish their apprenticeships with the digital skills future employers need, but they need to find employers that will continue to nurture these skills throughout their career,” concludes Gowans.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by D2L .