SPEND on education and training is, inevitably, front-loaded and concentrated into the first 16 years of everyone’s life.
While this model has served us for centuries, are there interventions which could serve us even better in today’s challenging world? Might both older and younger members of the workforce benefit from continuous professional and personal development?
Diversity in the workplace doesn’t just relate to gender balance and equality. Improved diversity within an organisation leads to a greater understanding of trends and opinions, and an enhanced ability to handle changes in the market – whether that is seeking new custom or future recruits. So, it’s reasonable to expect that an organisation which embraces apprenticeships, and encourages workplace learning for all staff will have a much greater grasp of global trends and thus be able to respond to opportunities.
Monday marks the start of Scottish Apprenticeship Week, and is a perfect time for leaders to consider the multitude of benefits that come with having apprentices in the workplace.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, there are already over 12,000 businesses currently involved in apprenticeships. This provides a great opportunity to foster home-grown talent, and not just in the trade and labour-based sectors such as engineering and construction, but across all sectors of business.
Certainly, evidence suggests that economies with high levels of work-based learning have higher levels of productivity. Given the recurring media theme of Scotland's low productivity, this is without a doubt an area we would all wish to improve on. Scottish apprenticeships are a great example of work-based learning and as they are demand-led, they have been designed to directly respond to the critical skills needs of Scotland’s employers.
The Scottish Government’s Employer Skills Survey (2017) showed that almost a fifth of graduates in Scotland are under employed, and with Brexit there will likely be an increase in skill shortages in sectors and regions which have relied heavily on EU labour. This is especially true as the population growth rate forecast slows in parallel with a decline in working age population which will only exacerbate the problem.
To help to mitigate this, introducing a younger, more diverse dynamic into the workforce through modern apprenticeships could provide a solution – alongside offering an opportunity for senior management to benefit.
Coined reverse mentoring, this is the concept that while traditional mentoring improves a younger employee’s understanding of a company, business etiquette and practice (amongst other areas); these improvements are not solely the domain of the active younger mind.
Senior leaders stand to gain greatly from being mentored by those starting out in their careers. In a world where automation and technology are becoming standard business practice, we have an opportunity to learn from a generation who have grown up with technology, and to whom it is second nature. Reverse mentoring also helps avoid groupthink by introducing a challenging voice to the mix.
Scotland’s greatest asset is its people. Scottish apprenticeships and work-based learning create opportunities for everyone, no matter their background, and for every business – regardless of its size or sector.
The benefits to business are clear in terms of plugging the skills gap, future-proofing the business and investing in the new workforce, however it is just as beneficial for leaders, as there is so much to learn from the future generation of workers.
Malcolm Cannon is national director of the Institute of Directors (IoD) in Scotland
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here