Celebrating Apprentice Success
Celebrating apprentice success is an essential element to factor into apprenticeship strategies developed by providers and employers. This might be recognition of an apprenticeship completion or the achievement of certain milestones and qualifications within the apprenticeship. Critically, celebrating success and achievement has been shown to increase motivation, and make an apprentice more likely to take their training seriously, perform well, and also progress to higher-level programmes once they have completed. We are seeing both apprenticeship levy payers and smaller employers starting to adopt celebration practices developed by providers, with excellent results. Here are a few suggestions for ways of celebrating apprentice success:
Good news stories and case studies
Producing a good news story about your apprentices’ success is a tried-and-tested method for commemorating achievement. The article can be posted to your website and shared via social media. It can also be shared in internal company newsletters and with partner organisations who run platforms for promoting apprenticeships and apprentice achievements. Of course, Be More is one such platform. Don’t forget to send us through any apprentice success stories, and we will share in our newsletter and on our website.
Digital hall of success
Why not dedicate a gallery page on your website to post images of your apprentices with statements about their achievements? Each image or the full page can be shared via social media and promoted internally amongst employers staff, so apprentices feel a sense of pride in their achievements.
Apprenticeship graduation events
Apprenticeship graduation events have been around for a while; indeed, we have held these with much success in Liverpool City Region in recent years. Many apprenticeship providers hold graduation and celebration events, inviting apprentice graduates, their parents and employers to come together and recognise achievement. We also see more of this with levy-paying employers who employ a large number of apprentices.
The Be More team will be organising an annual Apprenticeship graduation ceremony for Liverpool City Region apprentices – so to watch this space for further details.
Congratulations cards
A simple but effective idea for celebrating your apprentices’ succss is to send them a personalised card when they complete their programme. These can be printed in advance and addressed personally to the apprentice. Why not include details of their progression options in the card, inviting them to contact you to discuss opportunities.
Whichever tools you choose to celebrate your apprentices’ success, it’s worth prioritising this as part of your apprenticeship-related communications. It is certainly something that Ofsted are looking out for.