Leaving education and entering the world of work is a stressful and challenging time.

There is a requirement for young apprentices to work with a wide range of people whilst meeting the high expectations of clients and managers, and yet still learning higher level skills. This is a sure test of that young person’s adaptability, strength and ultimately, their confidence.

Here at Lindley, we believe that new young employees become much more valuable within the work place if they have good levels of resilience. Many young people are not fully prepared and our Apprentice Development events help them take on these new challenges.

What is resilience?

We’re talking about the capacity to deal with challenges, to identify how you might positively contribute, to retain a belief that you have a choice of how you behave when circumstances increase the stresses upon you. It is something we are all required to learn and develop throughout our lives.

However, given the degree of self-awareness and self-belief involved, it is a learning journey that a group of young employees will often start from very different positions.

Is it worth investing in developing young apprentices?

By improving a new young employee’s ability to remain objective, work productively in challenging situations and learn from stressful tasks, they become valuable employees.

In addition to the manner in which the young person is managed and coached in the workplace, carefully designed experiences that act as a catalyst in the development of resilience can be used to assist the apprentice development.

From over 50 years of experience of working with young employees, we have determined that the most successful programmes of activities for developing resilience have some common characteristics:

  • Developing the role for employer mentors, champions or coaches who Challenge and Inspire
  • Use of carefully designed stretching challenges in unfamiliar settings such as structured outdoor learning experiences
  • Opportunities to learn from both success and failure through trial and error exercises
  • Facilitation of formal and informal reflection to identify learning that helps them recognise that reflection is an essential life skill
  • Progression through challenges/exercises building an understanding of personal change
  • Planning for and commitment to application of learning and further development

It is no surprise many organisations look to Lindley to help them develop their apprentices. Lindley programmes are highly participative and interactive. Experienced trainers deliver input and coach throughout. A range of carefully designed outdoor exercises use activities to mirror common challenges in the work place. The exercises enable participants to ‘live the learning’ with opportunities for practising new skills, sharing best practice, discussing real issues encountered at work and devising appropriate strategies for managing personal change.

Do get in touch if you’d like to discuss ideas on how we can help accelerate the development of your young employees. Lindley hosts an experiential learning forum for trainers and employers, that explores issues similar to this. Contact us if you’d like to attend.

Author: Andy Robinson