Ankita Parekh works at Willows Health which is the largest provider of NHS primary care services in the East Midlands. Covering eleven sites and over 65,000 patients, their main focus is to offer sustainable, high-quality care. Ankita has been using Heart of England Training’s free recruitment service over the past few years to recruit apprentices within her company. Rachel O’Connor is our Recruitment Co-Ordinator at Heart of England Training and handles all things recruitment! Originally hearing about our free recruitment service through her HR Manager, Ankita said that the reason she chose to begin hiring apprentices is because she feels it is very beneficial to give young people the chance to experience working life in a controlled environment, whilst also getting paid for it.

“It works both ways we have bodies in the office to help us and the candidate gets experience on the job and allows them to make future decisions based on their experience.”

Our Free Recruitment Service

If you choose to go down the apprenticeship route with a new member of staff, we can support you with the recruitment process as a free wraparound service. This recruitment service forms a key component of our relationships with employers: we can reduce the time taken to hire, and we can significantly reduce your administration and overheads involved in the process of recruiting.

You can tap into our expertise and rest assured that we will provide everything up to interview stage. Most importantly – if we do not find a suitable person for you, there is no exposure to your business. You can simply walk away.

You may be entitled to a financial incentive from the Government for recruiting a new apprentice. We will advise you of the current incentives and work with you to produce an appropriate job description before advertising the vacancy on the National Apprenticeship Service website and our various online platforms. The advert must be live on the National Apprenticeship Service for a minimum of two weeks; although we recommend a minimum of three weeks to ensure the best exposure for your vacancy. We will provide weekly management information.

Our recruitment service is free on the basis that HOET provides the training for the candidate’s apprenticeship qualification. If you decided to employ one of our candidates – but not to pursue the training through HOET – an introductory fee would be charged. Our free recruitment services does not include referencing or ‘right to work’ checks.

How does our Recruitment Service help?

Ankita continued on to explain the benefits that she has found through using our free recruitment service. She explained that since using it, she has found that it saves her and the company a lot of time. Due to this, more time has become available to herself and the rest of the company, allowing them more time to focus on advertising the company as a whole and reaching a broader, much larger target audience.

“I would definitely recommend Heart of England Training’s free recruitment service; it’s excellent!”

“I’m definitely planning to use their service again in the future. I have been using their service for a while now and always appreciate the support that they continue to provide in assisting us to recruit.”

Ankita’s Apprentice, Irum Riaz, has also given some feedback on how she has been finding her apprenticeship journey through Heart of England Training.

“My experience as an apprentice has been amazing so far. I’ve really enjoyed attending the day courses and learning all about business admin.”

“I receive a wide range of support from my educator Jo. I also have regular reviews in which I feel confident in knowing what stage I am currently at and what to work towards next.”

Are you looking to recruit an apprentice?

Delve further into our Free Recruitment Service by heading to our website HERE.

Speak to our Apprenticeship Levy Manager, Riv Monsell or our Apprenticeship Recruitment Consultant Manager, Rachel O’Connor to find out more information.

We offer a wide range of apprenticeships and full time courses, ranging from Business, Schools and Hairdressing and Beauty therapy.