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Did You Know?
- For active apprenticeships, Midlands Technical College earns the top spot in South Carolina. Additionally, Richland County was #29 across all counties, D.C., and U.S. territories.
- For new apprenticeships, Midlands Technical College held more than 3% of the U.S. total. Nationwide, there were a total of 17,894 new apprentices, with MTC adding 559.
About the Author
Jeremy Catoe is the lead business solutions director at Midlands Technical College.
He serves clients in the areas of business services, energy, health care, finance and banking, information technology and telecommunications, insurance, legal services, and military.
Alongside the rest of the business solutions team, they ensure the MTC is helping meet the demands and needs of the Midlands workforce.
Jeremy can be reached at catoej@midlandstech.edu or 803.691.3881 and is ready to help your business grow its talent.
One consistent message the Midlands Technical College (MTC) Business Solutions team has heard lately is that numerous businesses are facing a more challenging recruiting environment. The pool of job seekers is not even close to what it was five years ago. This has two distinct impacts on businesses.
First, it means that competition for those qualified candidates is strong. Companies that want to land top talent are having to move faster and pay more in order to bring in new hires that are ready to hit the ground running. This is particularly true with positions requiring technical expertise such as IT or industrial maintenance.
Second, this competitive environment means that companies are having to do more to keep their good employees from leaving. The better job you do of hiring and training talent, the more likely your competitors are to target your employees for recruitment. This piracy is perfectly legal, and expensive for both the victim and the pirate.
So, what are companies doing to address these impacts? Surprisingly, we’re hearing the same answer for both goals. Employers are starting to look to apprenticeship programs as both a recruiting and retention tool.
Employees consider salary and benefits, such as insurance or retirement, when deciding on a job. These factors give them a clear grading scale with which they can compare your company to everyone else in your industry. However, there is another component that factors very strongly in how an employee views a company – career growth opportunity.
The employees you are pursuing want to work for a company who will provide them the opportunity to grow. They want to grow professionally both in terms of their salary and skills and abilities. They want to know what your company will do to help them achieve each of those goals, in writing, before they sign the new hire paperwork. Your current employees want to be involved as well. They want to know they are valued and that you are invested in seeing them grow within the organization. A registered apprenticeship program clearly illustrates that commitment.
If you don't have an apprenticeship program already, consider the impact it could have on your workforce. The employees we described above may still agree to work for you, but if they don't see your commitment to their growth, they may see your company as a steppingstone to the next opportunity on their career path. You will effectively be paying to develop talent for your competitors. The cost of that kind of turnover is more than enough to justify the cost of developing a strategy to prevent it.
Apprenticeships have become a much bigger piece of the employee development landscape over the last few years. They have grown beyond entry level positions. Employers are creating career ladders based on completion of specific certification courses. Many companies are looking to online resources to complement their own internal training.
There is no single correct approach for an employer to take. But I would dare to say that there is one incorrect approach, not doing anything at all.
If you are interested in learning more about apprenticeships or how MTC may be able to help your employee training and development programs, feel free to reach out to us at corporatetraining@midlandstech.edu.
About Midlands Technical College
At Midlands Technical College (MTC), we are dedicated to helping businesses and employees thrive through innovative workforce solutions. Our apprenticeship programs provide hands-on training and development opportunities that support employee growth and retention. To learn more about apprenticeships and student employment services, visit our Student Employment Services page. MTC offers a wide range of programs across various fields, including skilled trades, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and business. These programs are designed to equip employees with the skills they need to advance their careers while supporting businesses in building a strong, skilled workforce.