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Advertising your Role
You can advertise your apprenticeship roles on our website - our Find an Apprenticeship resource lists current apprenticeship vacancies and is where we direct all applicants to start their Apprenticeship search. We also host Appretniceship employment events across the academic year - if you'd like to get involved in these or want to host your own apprenitceship event, let us know.
Use the link below to complete a form or email apprenticeships@ulster.ac.uk for more information.
Shortlisting
- Often employers will recieve applications from a diverse set of applicants, presenting with all different types of Level 3 qualifications. If you are unsure whether a candidate meets the entry criteria, you should email your Programme Director or admissions_direct@ulster.ac.uk, and a member from the Admissions team can give you more information on equivalencies.
- Consider appointing one or two Reserve candidates - while we appreciate that the Apprenticeship pathway is a great opportunity, applicants often have a number of different choices in front of them, and some decide to pursue Full Time study at the last minute. Other candidates unfortunately won't meet their predicted grades and will fail to meet our entry requirements. Appointing a Reserve candidate can help you fill an empty place at short notice.
Recruitment Tips
Although Degree Apprenticeships are a partnership between an Apprentice, the University, and an employer, Apprentices are first and foremost your employees. You are in control of the ‘how, when, and where’ of recruitment. In addition to setting the job description and the specifications that applicants need to meet, you can decide how many applicants to interview.
- It’s up to you to decide who you appoint. As long as they meet the criteria in the section above, they can be an apprentice.
- Make sure the job specification makes clear the academic entry requirements for the post. Employers can set their criteria higher, but not lower, than the minimums set out on our prospectus for the programme of study.
- You can open and close your recruitment exercise at any time. Some organisations choose to start advertising up to a year before the apprenticeship and close applications in the spring, while others might start in the spring and only invite applications for a month. In order to ensure that we can get Apprentices enrolled on time, recruitment exercises should be completed and candidates should be identified by August. Regardless of when you advertise, you should make sure that Programme Directors are aware of your intentions to recruit and any related timescales at the outset as numbers on some apprenticeship programmes can be capped in accordance with available DfE funding.
Making an Offer
You've got your candidate, what next?
Once you have identified your successful candidate, you should let the relevant Programme Director know. When extending an offer of employment, there are a few important conditions for funding that should be included in the language of your Offer of Employment to protect you as an Employer.
- Any offer of Apprenticeship employment should be contingent upon funding from the Department for the Economy NI.
- Where applicants are still awaiting Level 3 results, offers of employment should be conditional on the applicant meeting the minimum entry criteria for the programme of study.
New apprentices can start working for you up to 6 months prior to the start of the University's training begins. This is a good opportunity for you to induct new employees and get them used to the pace of a real work environment before they start their off-the-job training. Many employers will stipulate a start date of 1st September, but start date is established at the employer's discretion.
