Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs 140,000 people.

Barclays is committed to being an accessible and inclusive organisation, and this extends to all of its customers, employees and apprentices. Six per cent of their current apprentices have a declared disability and Barclays pride themselves on the support they provide at all stages of their Apprenticeship Programme and beyond.

Barclays is at the forefront of the latest development in Apprenticeship policy and plays an active role in the Government’s Trailblazer initiative.

Recruitment of apprentices

From the outset of their Apprenticeship Programme, Barclays ensures that it selects a wealth of new talent, who will become excellent employees and make a significant contribution to the successful future operation of the bank.

Barclays has a dedicated Early Careers Team which manages their in-house apprenticeship provision. The team is developing an embedded approach for the engagement and support of apprentices in order for Barclays to most effectively invest in its future talent. This approach includes working with colleagues from a number of organisations to develop new recruitment pathways into their business. For example, Barclays are working with a provider based in the north of England which is helping to source young people for Barclays’ Apprenticeship Programme. These external organisations are effective in attracting non-traditional applicants (e.g. disabled people, apprentices from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds and Black and Minority Ethnic^definition apprentices) to the Apprenticeship Programme. 

The Early Careers Team also runs a series of external events to promote Apprenticeship opportunities at Barclays, providing an opportunity for existing apprentices to act as ambassadors, by visiting schools and colleges and promoting their learner journeys to students. 

“We craft the message so that young people understand that there is nothing detrimental in declaring a disability, it’s not a negative thing.” Shaun Meekins - Head of Employability Engagement

Once they have been recruited to the Apprenticeship Programme, prospective apprentices participate in a five-week classroom-based induction programme. They then undertake two weeks' work experience in a relevant department in Barclays, which acts as an active working interview. This is followed by a formal interview process which takes account of candidates’ performance during the five-week induction and their two-week work experience placement, as well as giving them the opportunity to discuss their previous experience and motivations for working at Barclays. 

Upon completion, successful candidates then progress to the Apprenticeship Programme to pursue opportunities in a relevant department at Barclays. Unsuccessful candidates are supported to access appropriate careers information, advice and guidance, and are signposted to alternative employment and training opportunities. Both successful and the unsuccessful candidates receive a full feedback report on their performance at every stage of the recruitment process.

This extensive recruitment and selection process enables Barclays to hire more non-traditional apprentices, as the applicants are not judged simply on their previous experience or formal qualifications alone; their potential skills and capabilities can be accurately assessed through the recruitment process.

Support for disabled apprentices

All apprentices have a line manager who provides them with day-to-day support. The line manager can refer back to the Early Careers Team if there are any issues or difficulties with the apprentice’s performance. The Early Careers Team will provide the apprentice and their line manager with additional pastoral support if required.

Barclays is happy to make adjustments for disabled apprentices, and these are tailored to each apprentice’s needs and what works for them. The Early Careers Team tends to find that disabled apprentices are keen to get on with their work and do not want to emphasise any difference between themselves and their colleagues.

“Even when we talk to apprentices who have declared their disability, they are very keen that it isn’t a subject that is repeatedly referred to or mentioned.  Because, ultimately, they just want to come in and they want to do their job. They are hugely appreciative of the reasonable adjustments that we make for them, but actually, beyond that and when we’ve done that, they’re really, really keen to knuckle down.” Tracy Longhurst - Operational Specialist Early Careers

Barclays does not view Apprenticeships as short-term positions, but as an opportunity to mobilise and retain new talent for the business. Consequently, Barclays is committed to investing in its apprentices’ future and its Apprenticeship Programme aims to kick start apprentices’ long-term careers.

Benefits for Barclays

Barclays finds recruiting disabled apprentices has a positive impact on the business. They are actively learning how best to recruit apprentices with disabilities, in particular apprentices who are hard of hearing or partially sighted.

The commercial aspects of the return on investment are already being noted by Barclays. The loyalty of the new apprentices to the bank is outstanding. There are clear improvements in the retention of staff as a result of the new recruitment policies developed to recruit apprentices. This is resulting in reduced job advertisement and recruitment costs for the bank.

Barclays has an ageing workforce and the widening of their Apprenticeship offer is helping the bank strengthen its equality and diversity statistics, making it a more successful and inclusive organisation. Barclays has found that their intake of new apprentices has injected new ideas and dynamism into departments across the bank.

Future plans

The bank’s senior management are extremely supportive of the Early Careers Team’s work with external organisations to develop new access pathways for disabled apprentices. By working in partnership with organisations like Disability Rights UK, Barclays is aiming to increase the percentage of disabled apprentices recruited over the next three years from the current six per cent to between 10 and 15 per cent. In total, Barclays is planning to recruit a further 1,000 apprentices across many areas of their business over the next 12 months, including Human Resources, Head Office and IT.

Barclays is developing a new thrust for their recruitment approach which has been published in a new policy report. This report draws on the socio-economic impact and return on investment of having a diverse workforce, in order to re-affirm the bank’s commitment to widening participation in recruitment. The report demonstrates the contribution that the widening participation of employees through the Apprenticeship Programme has made to the operation and profitability of Barclays.

Further information and contact

Barclays Bank PLC is a major global financial services provider operating in over 50 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.barclays.co.uk.

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