Advocating for apprenticeships in small firms
Posted on: 16 June, 2025
“I think a postgraduate apprenticeship is a great way to learn because you’ve gained experience at undergraduate level and you’ve been able to learn about a topic that interests you, but then to be able to take that further, learn more, and apply it to your work is a great opportunity.”
Name: Anna Barley
Company: Thomas Sinden
Anna Barley is the HR Manager at Thomas Sinden, where she has worked for four years, managing everything from recruitment and onboarding to strategic workforce planning.
She credits the company with having a deeply-embedded culture of training:
“We have a lot of people that came in as trainees and are still with us by their mid-30s. There’s a gentleman who joined us as a trainee site manager and he was very enthusiastic, and he’s now in a very senior role in planning nearly 10 years later.
“We also have a lot of people who’ve come into one position and then we’ve upskilled them and they’ve gone into something else. We’ve had surveyors go into design management; site managers go into pre-construction. There’s a very strong development culture in the company.”
In fact, Anna herself is an example of someone who has changed course and upskilled: she didn’t have a background in learning and development before joining Thomas Sinden, and now she’s a sponsored student, undertaking a Level 7 (Master’s) apprenticeship in Strategic Human Resource Management.
Expanding the apprenticeship programme
One of Anna’s key achievements in the last four years is the expansion of the company’s apprenticeship programme. Thomas Sinden’s total headcount has increased from 90 to 140 in this time, and the range of upskilling opportunities has expanded in tandem, with employees engaged in a range of programmes including NVQs and conversion courses. There are currently ten employees enrolled on apprenticeships, and Anna expects this number to grow in the coming years:
“The company had a massive growth last year and with that I am foreseeing an increase in apprentices coming in as the teams grow and we have more capacity. We’ve observed that when we take apprentices on, they generally do very well.”
Anna recruits apprentices from a variety of sources:
“There are staff referrals, as well as local authority referrals. I’m taking on a very young apprentice at the moment who walked onto the site and asked about roles. We go into colleges and sixth forms; we advertise. There’s no one fixed way of finding our apprentices.”
A supportive partnership with UCEM
“UCEM is quite new to us”, says Anna.
She explains that the company took on an apprentice who had started their programme with a company that went bust. They were already enrolled at UCEM when they were taken on by Thomas Sinden, and gave the university “great feedback”.
When Anna started working with UCEM, she found the team to be “so responsive and easy to get advice from”. She is “looking forward to building a great relationship with UCEM” and sees “a bright future there” as the company looks to enrol more apprentices.
Anna particularly likes the 100% online learning model at UCEM, as this provides both the apprentice and the company with much-needed flexibility:
“Sometimes projects can be difficult and if you’ve got something happening on a day when the apprentice wants to be present but has to go on campus, that can be tricky. So I think the flexibility around the online studying is fantastic for both the company and the apprentices.”
Apprenticeships in small firms
Anna is a huge advocate for apprenticeships in firms of all sizes, but sees particular benefits for smaller employers, even when bigger firms start to notice their newly skilled employees:
“We have very clear progression paths for people, with targets to hit. Other companies do go after our trainees because they know they’re good. We make sure that they get a diverse range of projects. They’re not a small fish in a big pond like they might be in a tier one company.”
What about the risk of developing someone who leaves for a bigger firm? Anna acknowledges this can happen, but she doesn’t see it as a threat. In fact, she says, “we’ve had people go and spread their wings elsewhere, do really well, and then come back to us to become directors.”
Anna firmly believes that smaller companies have a lot to gain from setting up their own apprenticeship schemes, with success coming down to good communication:
“You need communication in all directions: with the apprenticeship provider, the line manager and the apprentice. You’ve got to make sure that the line managers are equipped with training the apprentices. They need to be skilled in coaching and mentoring.”
