BUSINESS CASE STUDIES

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BUSINESS CASE STUDY

Five Talent

In Central Oregon, tech jobs are abundant but qualified candidates are hard to come by. This imbalance inspired one software consulting agency in Bend, Oregon to investigate a new way to secure talent.

In the Information Technology (IT) industry, being qualified for a software development job does not necessarily mean having a college degree. Many of the hard skills needed can be taught on the job, molded to fit the needs of a specific business. After experiencing deficiencies in qualified IT candidates, Five Talent software consulting agency elected to hire registered apprentices to help build a stronger workforce for the future.

“One thing we really value about the apprentices is they can wear multiple hats,”

Through Registered Apprenticeship, Five Talent has hired former office assistants, realtors, and even a whitewater rafting guide. For Chief Technology Officer Ryan Comingdeer, the previous experience of career changers is a key benefit to hiring apprentices. “They’ve got the work ethic already in place,” he said. “They have professional experience. They’re just missing a lot of the hard skills.”

In many cases, apprentices who start their career at Five Talent can apply skills from previous positions in unexpected ways. “One thing we really value about the apprentices is they can wear multiple hats,” said Ryan. “They’ve been in another career in their previous life. They’ve come in with everything from a trade industry, to management, to owning their business.”

“After two years, they’re going to be an ideal candidate or employee because they’ll be so much more well rounded in the engineering experience, as well as soft skills.”

Five Talent hired one apprentice who was a former business owner and marketing lead for 10 years. When starting at Five Talent she noticed some holes in their UI/UX and marketing efforts. Her expertise in this area helped transition her role into a usability expert, maximizing her value and utilizing her full skillset effectively.

“Now she’s advising the team on usability best practices on all the products that we’re working on,” said Ryan. “She can speak to them at a designer level or at an engineering level, which is really valuable and efficient.”

Registered Apprenticeship can provide a wider, more diverse pool of qualified candidates, but businesses contemplating a program should remember that the investment of time is a two-way street. Apprentices put in the time to learn, and businesses need to put in the time to teach. Ryan suggests planning a two year investment before apprentices are ready to be on their own. “After two years, they’re going to be an ideal candidate or employee because they’ll be so much more well rounded in the engineering experience, as well as soft skills.”

RECAP

THE BENEFITS OF REGISTERED APPRENTICESHIP FOR BUSINESSES

The winning combination for Five Talent and Registered Apprenticeship is previous work experience and on-the-job training to fit their specific needs. “In our industry we call them ‘unicorn’ individuals,” said Ryan. “I feel like the apprenticeship students get closer to that unicorn than you would find with a typical job posting…I would definitely recommend other companies get involved with Registered Apprenticeship.”

For Five Talent, Registered Apprenticeship:

Widens the pool of talent for open positions
Allows career changers to apply unique skill sets from previous roles
Diversifies the background of staff members

Ready to start coding your Registered Apprenticeship program? Contact an Apprenticeship Business Representative at 971-235-6289 or ATDemail@boli.state.or.us.