This document presents a method, a social marketing tool, which gives the empirical evidence that there is a business case for apprenticeships and can be utilized to promote apprenticeships. The method was adapted to the Indian [small and medium enterprises] SMEs environment, where usually data collection at enterprise levels is very limited and is based on five case studies from various industries (light and heavy manufacturing, the retail and hotel industry). The cases re-affirm that apprenticeships create more benefits than costs; investments are in fact often recovered during the apprentic
... Show more
This document presents a method, a social marketing tool, which gives the empirical evidence that there is a business case for apprenticeships and can be utilized to promote apprenticeships. The method was adapted to the Indian [small and medium enterprises] SMEs environment, where usually data collection at enterprise levels is very limited and is based on five case studies from various industries (light and heavy manufacturing, the retail and hotel industry). The cases re-affirm that apprenticeships create more benefits than costs; investments are in fact often recovered during the apprenticeship period or immediately within the first year itself when apprentices are retained. For many enterprises benefit-cost aspects are one important aspect, which determines training decisions. However, there are also other factors and cultural differences between enterprises, how they see and therefore invest into apprentices: some see apprenticeships more through a production lens, whereby they encourage apprentices to be workplace ready and productive as soon as possible. Other enterprises have a more long-term investment perspective, and aim at retention and employment opportunities. To date there is limited research evidence in India about the rationale of hiring apprentices. The [return on investment] ROI method can serve employers' organizations, governments and trade unions to start engaging with enterprises, who hire and train, to assess the ROI during and after training. A follow up survey, using the method applied in this study here could provide a deeper insight and provide the basis for strategic decision making about how apprenticeship systems should be designed, as both strategies have different implications on the type and quality of apprenticeships, retention and labour market outcomes, as shown in this paper.
Excerpt from published abstract.
Show less
