An apprenticeship is a paid job where the employee learns and gains valuable experiences.
Alongside on-the-job training, apprentice’s complete learning and assessment with a college, university or training provider.
This combined enables the apprentice to gain a qualification too.
An introduction to apprenticeships
created for Scottish Apprentieships Week 2026 #scotappweek26
Information for Future Apprentices
For young people, apprenticeships are a brilliant opportunity to access paid work whilst learning and upskilling towards a qualification.
It can be difficult to know where to start if you are thinking of becoming an apprentice in the rural sector.
You can find more information and browse through apprenticeship vacancies at Apprenticeship Scotland. However, you may not find vacancies for the specific apprenticeship you want to do.
This means your search may have to go further or you might already have contact with a ready employer, willing to take you on as an apprentice. To widen your research, head to our Resources page where you will our Padlet link, or get in touch with our team so we can direct you.
If you already have a well established relationship with a specific business or organisation that you would like to work and learn with, it is very helpful. If you have approached the business or organisation about apprenticeship opportunities, even better!
If the business or organisation would like more information on the next steps, signpost them to this page, get in touch with us and visit the ‘for employers’ page at Apprenticeship Scotland.
Information for Employers
There are 3 different types of apprenticeships: Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship
- Foundation Apprenticeship – working with senior pupils, at school, at your workplace for 1 day per week, to enable a young person to develop skills in school and gain a SCQF Level 4 or 5.
- Modern Apprenticeship – post-school, an employee of your business receiving vocational training to gain recognised qualifications.
- Graduate Apprenticeship – new/existing employee who gains a degree by studying at a Scottish university and learning on the job.
A Modern Apprenticeship (MA) is the most popular and effective for both apprentice and employer.
As stated by Apprenticeship Scotland, there are 3 main steps to hire a modern apprentice:
1. Match the job role in question to an apprentice framework found on Apprenticeship Scotland.
2. Find a learning provider, listed with the matched framework.
3. Recruit your apprentice
You don’t need to do this alone, we can support you at any point during the process and just because you can’t find a specific type of apprenticeship on www.apprenticeship.scot that reflects your business’ needs, it doesn’t mean there isn’t one or several to suit. That’s why it’s so important to get in touch with an SDS advisor who can offer help & guidance.
Before starting someone on an apprenticeship, you may actually, want to employ them if they are not already a current employee. It is critical that you find someone that is the right fit for your business.
Funding Support
Whilst all employment costs are covered by the employer, depending on the level of apprenticeship and the age of the apprentice, Skills Development Scotland contributes some or all the training costs for an apprenticeship. You can find this out when matching your apprentice to a framework (see above).
The Countryside Learning Scotland team are experienced to give employers advice and guidance with this process. Get in touch with us here.
We have created the following guide for you too: CLS Guide to Apprenticeships
Train - Work - Qualify
Apprenticeships are a key part of our ‘Train Work Qualify’ initiative. This initiative is a natural progression within our Pathways to Rural Work programme. Moving the young people on from the rural career’s awareness stage, to the training stage. The ‘Train Work Qualify’ initiative will offer, committed young people, in the NW Highlands the opportunity to upskill in specific careers through work experience and the gaining of ‘tickets’ e.g. excavator certificate, chainsaw certificate, skippers power boat ticket etc. This initiative will work with Lantra, Ringlink and other training providers to help meet the demand from rural businesses for qualified, young people who are work ready.
