The Apprentice: Your Next Hire – How Apprenticeships can Unlock Talent and Drive Growth in Fintech

“Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I will learn.” – Benjamin Franklin.

Wise words that have been shared and used throughout time to highlight the importance of meaningful engagement, support, and guidance when learning something new.

These words are so relevant during Apprenticeship Week, as this is the very ethos of apprenticeships. Learning whilst earning and making tangible progress over time are the keys to developing stellar talent and are what make apprenticeships a fantastic mechanism to grow, nurture, and develop people within the workplace.

The Welsh Government on Apprenticeships

The Welsh Government describes apprenticeships as:

“[Help] individuals accelerate their career by providing the right experience and job-specific skills and [help] businesses recruit in a cost-effective way.” Source

Variety and Opportunity

I believe this to be true, and having worked in the work-based learning sector for a number of years, it is brilliant to see the variety of frameworks available — 23. It is this variety of opportunities that is most exciting about apprenticeships in Wales because it enables employers to recruit, develop, and retain talent across their workforce, not just in specific areas of the business.

Data published by Medr, the new body for post-16 education, tells us that progress is being made to reach the Welsh Government’s target for 100,000 apprentices. Since 2020, over 59,500 individuals have started an apprenticeship programme within a variety of specialisms.

Fintech Sector Benefits

With this in mind, apprenticeships offer a fantastic opportunity for the fintech sector to attract and develop talent within the business. Through apprenticeship programmes, your future technical specialists, data analysts, and coders can all grow and thrive with you. These programmes not only impact the technical side of the business but also benefit non-technical roles.

Apprenticeships can be used to develop your future leaders. Other core roles and skills can be developed. There are, for example, pathways available in areas such as project management, customer service, and management. Apprentices benefit from a “learning while earning” approach, which enhances both technical capability and valuable, transferable workplace and employability skills. The often fast-paced environment that many fintechs operate in is the ideal place for an apprentice to gain a meaningful and impactful experience. In return, you gain a battle-hardened, business-ready, talented individual.

Continuous Career Development

Those talented individuals will also typically come from a wide demographic spread. For example, 4 in 10 apprenticeship starts in 2023/24 were by those aged between 25 – 39 years. This suggests that whilst traditionally apprenticeships are considered options for younger people, they are now making an impact across different generations in the workplace. Apprenticeships offer greater opportunity for a career changer to be successful, more opportunities for people to enter work later in life, and options for employers to continually develop talent within the workplace. You will also find you can cater for all levels within your organisation — programmes are available from foundational level right up to degree level.

Impact on Careers for Women

Women are also finding the apprenticeship route a favourable option — data shows that 67% of all apprenticeship starts in Q3 2023/24 were women. Whilst this is a great example of accessible opportunities for women to develop their careers, it is noticeable that the majority of female apprentices are within three framework areas: health and public services, management and professional services, and business administration.

The numbers are lower across other frameworks, and exceptionally low for those focused on STEM-related roles. This is despite numerous initiatives and KPIs to support women into STEM careers.

As a result, we need to continue creating opportunities for women and girls to choose STEM careers and be successful in them. Championing women as role models is an important part of this — some of the leading fintech organisations in Wales and the UK were founded and have been led by women, and we need to promote this more. Messaging like this will inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

More data on apprenticeships

Get Started

How can you get started with offering apprenticeships? Well, it would be wrong of me not to mention the brilliant education and training providers within the FinTech Wales ecosystem that are delivering life-changing, growth-building apprenticeship and work-based learning programmes.

You can find them all on our website, with a range of options including project management, data analytics, software engineering, business management, and cybersecurity.

We also have members currently advertising opportunities, like this degree apprenticeship at De Novo Solutions.

An Experience to Grow

Deciding to create an apprenticeship programme is a positive step—you’re on a journey to positively change lives. However, it’s crucial to create key structures that will ensure a successful apprenticeship:

• Culture: Your apprentice(s) will be keen to start and will want to do well. They will do great things, no doubt, but they will also make mistakes. Having a support network around them will ensure they learn fast and have confidence to keep going. Help them to develop resilience—they will thank you for it. Commit to them, and they’ll commit to you.
• Role: An apprenticeship is a job. They are there to grow themselves and contribute to the success of your business. Treat them well, give them meaningful and impactful challenges where they can see the outcome of their success. This is your future talent, and they will always remember your support.
• Success: Be honest and upfront about what success looks like. If there is a potential job post-apprenticeship, let them know that they are working towards it. This will help them stay motivated when things get tough.