BLOG: Why don’t you take on an apprentice?

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Business sales broker Adam Walker highlights the pros and cons of taking on a property industry apprentice in light of recent Government incentives.

9th Apr 20260 199 3 minutes read Adam Walker

The Government has just announced that it is going to offer to pay businesses £3,000 to take on a young apprentice. There are almost one million young people aged between 18 and 24 who are classed as NEETS – Not in Education Employment or Training – and something needs to be done urgently. So, should your business take on a young apprentice?

I was an apprentice once, and I will always remain grateful to my first boss Bernie who gave me a chance to prove myself in 1980. The job itself was pretty awful. I spent all day phoning potential house buyers to say “did you receive the details we sent you and would you like to view the property?”.

It was a boring and monotonous job, and these days it could be done by a chat bot. I was paid a pittance – £40 a week plus commission and there was absolutely no job security. In fact, I was told that if I didn’t sell something in my first month, I would be sacked.

Despite all this, I loved my job and I was very good at it. I sold two houses in my first month and my career quickly took off. Within the space of 18 months, I was promoted to senior negotiator, then to valuer, then to branch manager.

Ten years after I started in the property industry, I was offered the opportunity to set up Norwich Union estate agents,which within two years became a major regional chain with more than 100 staff and a multi-million-pound turnover.

The cost of employing a school leaver will – from April 2026 – be £4,680 a year more than it was in July 2024.”

Barriers to entry

Today it would be almost impossible for anyone to achieve this. First, Bernie would have had to pay me the minimum wage. This means that I would have cost almost as much to employ as an experienced negotiator. Why would any employer do this?

Secondly, the cost of National Insurance has gone through the roof. The threshold has been reduced, and the employer’s contribution has been increased. As a consequence, the cost of employing a school leaver will – from April 2026 – be £4,680 a year more than it was in July 2024.

Another concern is the increase in day one employment rights, including the requirement to pay statutory sick pay from day one. Regardless of how a new member of staff performs, it has become more challenging to terminate their employment. These changes have had a catastrophic impact on the number of job opportunities for young people.

Not nearly enough

Unfortunately, a one-off payment of £3,000 will not be nearly enough to compensate a potential employer for all the potential risks of taking on a young apprentice who may not work out. It is just so much safer now to take on a more experienced person or even to use a chat bot.

If our Government had deliberately set out to design a set of policies that make it impossible for employers to take on young apprentices, then they could not have done a better job. The obvious solution is to reduce the minimum wage for young people, to reverse the National Insurance increase and to make it easier to dismiss new employees during their probationary period.

The consequences of allowing one million young people to remain unemployed are just too awful to contemplate. There is strong evidence to suggest that if someone has not got their first job by the time they are 25, there is a significantly increased chance that they will never work in a secure job. We simply cannot afford to write off a whole generation of young people. It is not fair on them to be effectively excluded from opportunity and the cost to society will be enormous.

Take a chance

I really hope that our Government will soon realise just how disastrous the impact of their policies has been.

Meanwhile, I would urge you to offer a job to a young apprentice if you possibly can. They will probably cost nearly as much as an experienced person. I cannot therefore make a commercial case for taking on an apprentice.

However, morally it is the right thing to do and if your new apprentice does work out, they could make a significant contribution to your business and leave you feeling proud that you gave an opportunity to a young person to prove their worth.

adamjwalker.co.uk

Adam Walker is a consultant and business transfer specialist with 40 years’ experience in the residential property industry.

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