How to recruit apprentices for your employer partners
Start with an agreed vacancy, a clear advert and one working application route. For an apprenticeship in England, use the official Find an apprenticeship route, then choose additional channels that fit the trade and working area.
If you are a training provider advertising for an employer, check who is responsible for approving the advert and handling applications before you start.
Agree the vacancy first
Ask the employer to confirm the work location, duties, pay wording, working pattern, entry requirements and planned dates. Record who will answer questions and who will tell applicants the outcome. Keep course enquiries separate from applications for an actual job.
CITB’s advert guidance recommends naming the training, provider, employer, location, dates, duties and wage, and distinguishing essential from desirable requirements. Use that as a check on your brief. CITB: writing an apprenticeship advert.
Use the official England service
Employers can create vacancies through their apprenticeship service account. Approved adverts appear on Find an apprenticeship. Employers can also give a training provider permission to advertise on their behalf. Recruit your apprentice; provider permissions.
Choose additional channels for a specific reason
- A trade-focused listing. On UK Trade Jobs, approved providers can submit genuine paid apprenticeship vacancies for review. Standard provider adverts are free. Supply the employer’s permission, an accurate advert and its public source.
- Local careers contacts. The government suggests working with schools and colleges, holding open days and using social media. Share an actual vacancy and its working area rather than a generic “we’re recruiting” message. Official recruitment guidance.
- A broader early-careers board. UCAS Career Finder offers apprenticeship vacancy advertising. Review its current options and costs before committing; a paid listing is a separate decision. UCAS Career Finder.
Make the application route easy to check
Open the advert on a phone and follow the application link without submitting. Check that the page still names the right employer and vacancy, that the closing date agrees with the advert, and that an applicant can see what to do next.
If your employer or provider application form needs documents or an account, say that before sending people to it. Nominate someone to update every advert when the role changes or closes.
Find out which routes produce useful applications
Keep a simple record for each vacancy: where it was advertised, applications received, applicants meeting the agreed essential requirements, interviews, offers and starts. Keep unknown sources marked unknown.
A job-board view or an application-link click is not a completed application. Use your own application records for outcomes; label any figures supplied by the employer as employer-reported.
Advertise your trade apprenticeship
Create a free provider account to prepare your organisation profile. Profile approval comes before vacancy submission, and each advert is reviewed before publication.
The official service instructions above cover England. For another UK nation, follow its apprenticeship service rather than applying England’s process. UK Trade Jobs’ provider form records the nation where the apprentice will work.