Hiring the right candidate for your ICATT Apprenticeship may be different from how you hire regular employees. In many cases, you are looking at untried and unproven candidates – raw talent. The criteria shift from the skills they have to the potential you see in them. What company A is looking for will not be the same as what company B is looking for; recruiting the right candidate depends on company culture, individual attitudes and abilities, and other company specific criteria. So how do you recruit and hire ICATT Apprentices?

We talked to some of our network companies to get an idea of what works for them and developed a list of best practices. Learn more about each module.

  • Traditional Model– Similar to hiring for any position, i.e. hiring throughout the year before a formal offer is made.
  • Skill Assessment Model– An option for those companies that identify a specific skill set as necessary to the work they do.
  • Multi-Stage Model– The employer establishes specific stages through which candidates must pass to reach the final stage.
  • Intern-to-Apprentice Model – A hybrid of traditional and alternative practices. In this instance the recruiting is traditional, and the intern-pool-to-apprentice process is alternative.
  • Farm Team Model – By taking on high school and college students in formal internships, the company lets the students explore the field of advanced manufacturing while the company evaluates the individual before deciding if they are the right candidate.

The process you set up to hire an ICATT apprentice has to work with your company mission, values, and culture. There is no one right way, but there is a right way for your company. Trial and error may lead to greater success in hiring practices.

 

 

ICATT does not limit or set guidelines around the company hiring process. It is not our policy to obtain resumes from the applicants, our role is to verify college acceptance and program readiness through the college placement process and share those candidates with you. Please reach out to the candidates and request they complete your application and/or submit their resume as a first step with your company. 

ICATT does recommend hiring and starting the apprentices by July 1, to allow the apprentice to acclimate to the work environment and the company to assess the apprentice before getting too far into the program. This also aligns with the need for colleges to fill the spots that were held for the apprentices based on company ICATT reservations.