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- Each apprentice receives a basic toolkit from SAL

The systems also provides benefits for the apprentice:

- Variety in the working cultures, processes and methods of differing
companies
- Stability knowing that if anything happens to an individual company, they
can be switched to another

Whilst there are other similar schemes in England and Wales, SAL is the only one
in Scotland at present.

Local authorities have greatly assisted in the project by inserting some CSR
(corporate social responsibility) clauses into some contracts for sector businesses
insisting they take on an apprentice for the length of the contract. This has
enhanced the variety of opportunities for apprentices and also brought the
scheme to the notice of more companies, both large and small.

SAL manage the movement of apprentices from one company to the other and
should there be a time when an apprentice doesn’t have a company to move to,
they can infill into classes at the college temporarily, therefore ensuring they are
still receiving relevant learning. They also work closely with the companies at the
outset to ensure expectations from all sides are managed effectively.

All the feedback received over the 4 years (in 2019) of the programme has been
positive with only three apprentices dropping out over those 4 years.

Key Learnings

During the four years of the Shared Apprentice programme, there have been a
number of key learnings that are worth mentioning:

1. The construction sector in the UK has been quite volatile recently with
some large construction firms going into administration with the loss of
all jobs. One large company in Dundee recently had this trouble but due
to the shared apprentice scheme, SAL was able to find new companies for
the seven affected apprentices to move to the following week.
2. Working closely with the companies, the learning organisation and the
apprentice at the outset is key to managing expectations of all parties.
This ensures there are no misunderstandings and all parties are fully
aware of their roles and responsibilities, as well as the expectations of
others.