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Why is an apprentice good for my business?
It’s a question I hear a lot — and the hesitation behind it usually comes from the same place: inherited memory. For many of us in live events, “apprenticeship” still conjures the underfunded, irrelevant, old-school version that felt like it belonged in a plumber’s van, not a festival rig.
I get it.
When I was coming up in the late 90s, apprenticeships weren’t even on my radar. And when I tried to convince managers to bring one onto a team instead of hiring casuals, I was met with eye-rolls and a firm no. Here’s why that happened:
Through the late 90s and into the early 2000s, UK apprenticeships were in freefall. Funding was patchy, government support inconsistent, and culturally the whole system was seen as “for the trades” — not for lighting techs, sound engineers, or stage managers. There was no real financial incentive to invest in an apprentice when freelancers were cheaper and faster. The result was a skills gap that the industry is still feeling. The training itself didn’t help either. Programs were built around static trades, not the dynamic, multi-skilled reality of live events. And legally, the system was still operating under frameworks dating back centuries — vague contracts, weak protections, little employer confidence. By the early 2000s, degrees had won the culture war, even for roles that didn’t need them. The myth that “you learn on the job, not in a classroom” stuck hard in our world.
Fast forward to today.
The system has been rebuilt from the ground up around employer needs — and live events is part of that. There are now proper standards for roles like Event Production Assistant (Level 3), Technical Theatre Practitioner (Level 3), Live Event Technology Technician (Level 4), and Event Manager (Level 5). These were designed with industry bodies like PLASA, the Event Safety Alliance, and the Association of Event Organisers. They cover real-world skills: DMX, rigging, AV, streaming, sustainability, logistics, even AI tools for event planning.
And crucially — they’re funded. The Apprenticeship Levy covers larger employers; co-investment models exist for SMEs. They’re not just for school leavers either; career-changers and upskillers use them too.
If you’re hesitating because you remember the apprenticeships of the 90s, don’t. That system is gone.
Are you hiring based on facts or old memories?
When I started out, I had mentors — industry veterans with 20 or 30 years of experience who taught me the things college never would. In 2020, that generation retired or moved on, and a huge gap opened up. It’s part of why I moved into teaching.
Here’s what I’ve seen since: young people are actively choosing apprenticeships over university. With average student debt now over £45,000 and apprenticeships offering paid training with no tuition fees, the maths isn’t hard. A 2023/24 UCAS survey found 41% of 16–18-year-olds now see apprenticeships as their first choice — up from 29% in 2020. England saw 340,000 apprenticeship starts in 2023/24, a 10% jump year-on-year.
The students I work with aren’t going to university because they want to work. They want to be in the industry, driving it forward. They’re tech-savvy, hungry, and debt-free.
The question is whether you’re building your team based on what apprenticeships are now — or what they were thirty years ago.