Weston College
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Weston College currently has 12,000 students and offers a wide range of courses, including 51 different Apprenticeship frameworks. Weston College firmly believes that Apprenticeships are “good for everybody”, both learners and employers. The college has seen an increase in the popularity of Apprenticeships as more people have become aware of this. All of Weston College’s Apprenticeship vacancies are advertised on Apprenticeship vacancies; between January and August 2009 they have advertised 71 vacancies on the system.
Lucy Solomon, Employer Liaison Coordinator, describes the benefits of Apprenticeship vacancies to the college: “The system is
more professional and it’s really useful for us to place all our Apprenticeship vacancies in one place – it’s a valuable tool for us.”
Managing Apprenticeships at Weston College
As Weston College offers a large number and range of Apprenticeships, there are a number of teams and individuals involved in managing and coordinating Apprenticeships. These include Employer Liaison Coordinators, School Liaison Officers and Apprenticeship Coordinators for each of the sectors covered by the Apprenticeship frameworks offered. The management of Apprenticeship vacancies, however, is coordinated by a core team of three people, who lead on updating and monitoring the system on behalf of the whole college.
Weston College have been using Apprenticeship vacancies since its launch, and quickly adopted it into their existing recruitment processes. Lucy Solomon is one of the team with responsibility for using the system on a day to day basis, and feels that the college has successfully integrated the system into their practices. She says “We’ve incorporated the system into our day‑to‑day lives – it’s an essential part of how we work now.” By using the system regularly, the team are able to keep all their information up to date and ensure they are communicating with everyone who comes through the system.
Creating a vacancy on the system
The Employer Liaison Coordinators create the vacancy adverts and upload them onto the system. They communicate with the employer to make sure the advert reflects the role on offer and the employer’s ethos. Weston College also add links to the employer’s own website so that learners can easily access more information about the employer. To help speed up the process of completing the vacancy advert, the team often use previous adverts for similar roles as a starting point, and also refer to the employer’s website.
Weston College always use the two supplementary questions on the application form, and tailor them to each role. They have found that this helps to get more information about the type of person applying to assist with initial screening. The applications that they receive via Apprenticeship vacancies go into the college’s tracking system. This is a paper-based system, due to evidencing requirements, so the applications are printed straight off Apprenticeship vacancies and used to set up the learner’s file.
Filling and completing a vacancy
Weston College then works with employers to review candidates through pre-assessment selection days and further interviews. The employer then selects the final successful candidate and gives feedback to all final candidates. The college follow up with the employer to confirm their final selection, and use this to update the ‘applications ladder’; candidates then receive anotification regarding the success of their application via the ‘manage applications’ ladder on their Apprenticeship vacancies home page.
The final stage of the process is to complete the vacancy by finishing the final steps on Apprenticeship vacancies. This includes a section where the college can select whether the vacancy was filled by a learner who applied through the system, or whether it was filled ‘offline’ i.e. by a candidate who is not shown on their ‘applications ladder’, for instance where the application route is via the employer’s own online recruitment site. Finishing these final steps and completing the vacancy ensures that the college’s system is up to date and all the administration is concluded.
Using the report function
Weston College have recently started using the report function to help review their progress. They’ve found that this assists in recording and tracking information such as start dates and vacancies on the system. In the future they are looking to use the report function more to help with more detailed analysis of the recruitment process. For instance, the reports will be used to monitor how many applications are being received for each position, and also to monitor learners’ behaviour (using the ‘Candidates with Applications- Data Export’ report). This will help the team to provide better guidance to learners, by reviewing which type of Apprenticeships they are applying for and giving additional guidance on what to apply for and how best to do so.
The benefits of Apprenticeship vacancies
Lucy Solomon believes that Apprenticeship vacancies has brought a real benefit to Weston College and the employers they work with in recruiting apprentices: “Employers do enquire as to how we will promote their vacancies and this is a very cost‑effective way of doing it!”
Apprenticeship vacancies also had a positive effect on the interface with learners and the way the Apprenticeship team handle enquiries: “We’ve found it a more professional tool; guiding people directly to the website means they can view all our current vacancies with no hassle. It’s a better way for us to communicate with them and it saves us time. It’s also a great way to motivate people to help themselves.”
Having the vacancies and applications stored on the system has made it easier for the team to manage the recruitment process. The team find it easy to log on and have all the information about the candidate, such as contact details, ready to access.
(Also available as a PDF - 510kb)
Last Updated: 08/02/2012