An apprentice trained through Make UK gives you an employee who’s been educated both in your workplace and at our purpose-built engineering facility.
When they qualify, they have all the skills they need to do the job, and they’re already part of your organisation. Unlike new hires, apprentices trained by Make UK don't need onboarding - and they don’t need six months to find their feet because they’ve been doing the job for years.
Make UK apprentices have a wider understanding of the industry, a sharp instinct for problem-solving, and a confidence that comes from being taught by people with decades of experience doing the job themselves.
For most SMEs it will cost less than you think.
If your payroll is less than £3 million a year, you don’t pay into the Growth and Skills Levy.
The government will cover 95% of the apprentice’s training costs. You’ll pay 5% of the training fee and the apprentice’s wage, which is set by you.
If your business is larger and does pay the levy, any apprenticeships will be funded from your levy account. That means you’ve already paid for the training, and those funds will expire if you don’t use them.
It can feel like there’s never a good time, but consider the cost of inaction.
A skills gap doesn’t sort itself out. An engineer who leaves - whether through retirement, resignation or restructure - won't be replaced by waiting. Experienced engineers are expensive, and they won’t know anything about your business when they arrive.
Choosing to start an apprenticeship right now is a calculated decision. Four years is a long time to wait, but it’s a short time to build your future workforce.
The businesses that didn't train ten years ago are the ones feeling the pain most acutely today.
If a full apprenticeship isn't right for you now, there are shorter routes worth considering, including units that can fill specific skills gaps in just three weeks.
Block release is where your apprentice leaves your workplace for a few weeks at a time to train at the Make UK Technology Hub in Aston.
This lets apprentices properly immerse themselves in a skill, which works much better than with day release, where candidates spend one day a week trying to pick up where they left off.
As the national body for UK manufacturing, Make UK builds the curriculum around what employers actually need from their engineers, so the time your apprentice spends away is guided by industry demands.
In the first year, apprentices typically attend the Tech Hub for around four weeks at a time, followed by a period back in the workplace. In years two, three and four, attendance blocks become shorter.
While they're with us, they're working with the kind of equipment most workplaces couldn't justify having on site, and we’ve got robotics, CNC, electrical and CAD facilities under one roof.
The full year-by-year schedule is confirmed in advance, which means you can plan around it the same way you would handle annual leave or scheduled maintenance.
We won't pretend there's no commitment involved, but you won’t be alone through the process. Make UK is here to support you.
Before your apprentice starts, we’ll visit your business to understand your workplace and carry out a health and safety assessment. This visit also helps us shape your training to fit your needs.
During the programme you’ll get regular visits from your Training Development Adviser - your key contact at Make UK. They’ll visit your business regularly throughout the programme, track your apprentice's progress and step in when anything needs resolving.
You’ll always have a direct line to your adviser, making sure that your problems are our problems.
The best time to start building your pipeline of talent is four years ago.
The next best time is today.
From day one, you’ll get a worker learning the ropes on your factory floor, and in four years, you’ll have a skilled engineer who knows your business inside out.
JLR, Rolls-Royce and Severn Trent Water all trust Make UK to train their engineers. So do hundreds of manufacturing and engineering SMEs facing the same workforce pressures you do.
We’ll be completely honest with you - it could happen.
But the reality is that apprentices stay in high numbers when they are given responsibility, integrated into the team and paid fairly.
Apprentices are also likely to remain in the business longer than other employees, as they’ve put down roots in the organisation.
Not training your employees also carries a cost, and you can’t replace an engineer who retires next year by doing nothing.
Because Make UK works with employers across the UK, we know what makes an apprentice stick.
Our recruitment services also help you choose a candidate that’s the right fit at the interview stage, rather than leaving retention to chance after they've started.
The vast majority of businesses gain an employee who’s committed to the organisation.
Plenty of training providers teach engineering, but only Make UK shapes the national standards being taught.
As the national body for UK manufacturing, we hear what employers need their apprentices to do, and we build the programme around that.
Our tutors learned the job themselves in industry. And our Technology Hub in Aston is a purpose-built engineering facility with an industry’s-worth of equipment under one roof.
Apprentices can be any age, and they can be existing employees who need a formal qualification or skills training in specific areas.
If you have someone in your team who's been doing the job for years but hasn’t got the certification they need, an apprenticeship is a legitimate route.
We can talk through what's the right fit for you and your team.
The employers we work with come from across the UK, so we offer a residential option.
During block-release periods, apprentices can stay near the Technology Hub, which means location isn't an obstacle.
Find out more about how it works for employers.
Ready to see it for yourself?
Our Tech Hub in Aston has everything your apprentices need to learn under one roof, from robotics to welding and electrical to CAD.
Seeing the quality and quantity of equipment on offer is genuinely mind-blowing, and by the end of the tour, you’ll be ready to sign up.
Come and see where your apprentice will train, meet the tutors and get every question answered.
How is works for companies like yours
Hundreds of manufacturing and engineering SMEs across the UK all trust Make UK to train their engineers.
We have more than 1,000 apprentices currently training with us, and they work for companies of all sizes.
Talk to us
Interested in taking on an apprentice but still have questions?
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