It’s not enough just to hire apprentices from different backgrounds, they also need to belong
Apprenticeships are designed to help young people build a career by providing education or training alongside paid work, but research on apprentices from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds shows they do not always feel welcome in their organisations. Employers need to tailor their support if they want to retain and develop these young people.
“In 2015, the UK government published a policy paper, saying they wanted to increase the provision of apprenticeships. They also wanted to increase diverse representation in apprenticeships, and set a target to increase Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic apprentices by 20%,” says Omolola Olaleye.
“They were meant to reach this target by 2020, but by 2019, there were already reports showing that the target wasn't going to be met, and it seemed to have died a quiet death.”
Ms Olaleye has recently completed her PhD in the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity at Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on inequalities in apprenticeships. For her PhD, Ms Olaleye researched how young women and men from minoritised ethnic backgrounds navigate their working lives as apprentices.
As well as studying UK policy on apprenticeships and speaking to employers, educators, unions and advocacy organisations, Ms Olaleye conducted in-depth interviews with 30 apprentices who identified as Black, Asian, Mixed Heritage or Middle Eastern. There were 15 female and 15 male apprentices, working in a variety of industries, from accounting and property management to automotive engineering.
Being ‘othered’
Ms Olaleye explains her findings: “What came through from these young people was that they didn't feel that their ethnicity played a role in their access to an apprenticeship. Where they felt that ethnicity was most salient was when they were already in work.”
“I came away with findings that suggest age was intersecting with ethnicity, and sometimes gender. Being younger meant these apprentices were provided with good developmental opportunities in their roles, but when it came to the informal dynamics at work, like going for drinks with their colleagues, they were faced with questions such as where they came from, how they styled their hair and their suitability for the roles they held. That's where there was a heightened experience of being ‘othered’.”
“If you're coming into work at the age of 19 and you're starting to have these conversations and trying to navigate these difficulties, how long are you going to last in the profession?”, explains Ms Olaleye.
Impression management tactics
Ms Olaleye notes that it was interesting how these apprentices intentionally engaged in what she refers to as impression management tactics to navigate experiences of marginalisation. These tactics include engaging in ‘code switching’, where people alter the way they speak, and dressing or behaving differently to avoid standing out and to fit in at work.
Ms Olaleye continues: “There was one person who said, ‘I feel I need to act like an older, whiter version of myself’. In terms of physical presentation, someone who identified as female said that she was conscious of what she wore to work. She would pick trouser suits over skirts, because she knows that Black women can be hyper-sexualised at work. So, she was masking her femininity and her ‘blackness’ as she put it, because she didn’t want to stick out too much.”
Focus on support
Ms Olaleye is interested in how young people experience work and is curious to understand how they make sense of their experiences. She notes that her findings reveal aspects of organisational life that are not accommodating of young people who are new to their professions.
She argues that whilst it is a positive step to seek to get young people from different backgrounds into organisations, it's even more important to make sure that those young people feel safe and belong, so that they can do good work and thrive.
“I would like to see a more targeted and focused approach to supporting career entry and progression for these apprentices. If you’re an organisation that's invested in someone's training and development through an apprenticeship, what you don't want is for that person to leave halfway or be unable to give their best.”
“So, I think it's important that we have these conversations, and it's important that organisations pay a bit more attention to their apprentices.”