How IT Apprenticeships Support Long-Term Talent Development at AAG IT Services

The Recruitment Challenge Facing IT Teams

In IT and managed services, recruitment can appear straightforward. Roles attract interest, CVs arrive quickly, and experience is easy to evidence on paper. In practice, finding the right people is far more complex.

For AAG IT Services, this challenge has been familiar for years. As the business has grown, recruitment decisions have had a direct effect on workload, progression, and retention across teams.

As Alexa Greaves, Chief Executive Officer at AAG, explains:

“Finding that right one that’s a gem, that’s going to fit your business and not just fit the job, is a challenge.”

Like many organisations, AAG has hired experienced engineers where needed. But over time, it became clear that relying on the external market alone limited how people could progress internally. Embedding new hires took time, and opportunities to move existing staff into more complex roles were constrained by who happened to be available to recruit.

Those pressures prompted AAG to take a longer-term view of how capability should be built – one that focused as much on progression and development as it did on filling roles.

Why AAG IT Services Chose Level 3 IT Apprenticeships as a Long-Term Talent Strategy

AAG IT Services is a family-owned IT services business, and apprenticeships have been part of how the company builds teams for more than a decade. This approach was not introduced to address a short-term skills gap. It reflects a belief in developing people internally and creating clear routes for growth.

“It’s always been a passion of ours to bring people in and to see them grow,” says Alexa. “The culture at AAG is to grow from within.”

Apprenticeships allow AAG to develop technical capability alongside shared ways of working. People join at the start of their careers and learn the organisation’s systems, standards, and expectations from day one.

“They don’t come in with any preconceived ideas,” Alexa explains. “It’s a really nice way of bringing somebody in and training them from the ground up in our approach.”

Tom Proctor’s career reflects this philosophy in practice. He joined AAG as an apprentice more than eleven years ago and has since progressed into the role of Head of IT Operations, becoming a member of the leadership team. His journey demonstrates that this is not a theoretical model, but one that has delivered sustained results over time.

As Tom explains,

“You become ingrained in the business and grow alongside it, both as an individual and as the company develops.”

Building a Structured Apprenticeship Programme That Scales

While apprenticeships have long been part of AAG’s culture, the structure around the programme has evolved significantly. Early experience highlighted the importance of intentional support.

“In the early days, we were a little bit in danger of putting somebody in the seat and hoping they were growing,” Alexa reflects. “Now we absolutely support that growth as much as we possibly can.”

As the business expanded, AAG refined how level 3 IT apprentices are recruited, supported, and developed. One of the most effective changes was adopting a cohort approach, typically bringing in two or three apprentices at a time. This provides immediate peer support, reduces isolation, and helps build confidence.

Support structures have strengthened alongside this. Apprentices are paired with experienced team members and colleagues who have recently completed their own apprenticeships, creating a practical support network grounded in shared experience.

The programme also allows for movement across different areas of the business. Apprentices gain exposure to the service desk, project work, and more specialised functions. As AAG has grown, these pathways have become more clearly defined, enabling more focused development than was possible in earlier years.

From Apprentice to Leadership: Progression in Practice

The impact of AAG’s apprenticeship programme is most visible in how people progress once they are embedded in the business.

Tom’s journey from apprentice to Head of IT Operations is the most established example, but it is not an isolated case. More recent apprentices, including Ben Woolley, Jake Hobson, and Luke Taylor, have followed similar paths. After joining through the partnership with Baltic Apprenticeships, they progressed into key roles across the service desk and project teams within three to four years.

“How they’ve grown as individuals is incredible,” says Alexa. “To see them mature very quickly and evolve to who they are today is lovely to see.”

Development at AAG extends beyond technical capability. Apprentices build confidence, business awareness, and the ability to manage customer relationships effectively.

Reflecting on his own experience, Tom notes:

“I’ve certainly learned a whole host of things, not just about IT, but business itself. It gives you that opportunity to grow and learn.”

How Apprenticeships Remove Barriers to Progression

Over time, AAG identified a broader organisational impact of its apprenticeship programme. Without a steady entry-level pipeline, progression across the business would slow significantly.

“If you didn’t have an apprenticeship programme, the knock-on effect on other people in the business is quite dramatic,” Alexa explains. “It puts a natural ceiling on everybody else within the business. And then I actually think you would start to lose people, because they need to grow.”

When organisations are unable to bring people in at the ground level, internal movement becomes limited. Experienced staff remain in the same roles for longer, opportunities narrow, and progression becomes dependent on external recruitment rather than internal development.

Apprenticeships change that dynamic. As apprentices take on foundational work and develop capability, senior staff are able to move into more complex roles. Progression becomes part of the system rather than an exception.

The effect is cumulative. Apprentices enable movement throughout the organisation, support retention at multiple levels, and demonstrate that clear career paths exist.

That system is reinforced by the way apprenticeships shape behaviour across the team. Mentoring apprentices develops senior engineers’ communication and leadership skills, while the apprentices themselves bring energy and momentum into the business. “It injects a new lease of life,” says Tom. “The hunger to learn, succeed – they’ve all been eager to learn.”

In turn, apprentices develop more quickly, picking up both the values of the business and the soft skills they need as they progress. As Tom puts it, “You’ve got to make the time, because you get that time back tenfold.”

Choosing the Right Apprenticeship Training Provider

If you’re looking for IT Services in Manchester and the North-East, there’s a good chance you’ll be working with engineers who have developed their skills through structured apprenticeship programmes like those at AAG IT Services.

Supporting that kind of progression relies on more than technical training alone. For AAG, the success of its apprenticeship programme depends in part on working with a training provider that understands the business beyond job titles and course content.

“Somebody that understands your business has to know your culture and your people,” Alexa explains. “You can recruit two people with exactly the same skill set, but they might not have the same values.”

AAG has worked with Baltic Apprenticeships since 2019. Baltic supports the programme from recruitment through to ongoing development, providing structured off-the-job learning alongside regular check-ins.

From Tom’s perspective, this support has reduced the operational burden on the business.
“The support that’s been given, particularly in terms of helping us find young talent, has just made the whole process a lot easier,” he says.

The model works because responsibility is shared. Apprentices are embedded in AAG’s teams day to day, while Baltic provides structure and oversight.

What Employers Should Consider Before Starting an Apprenticeship Programme

AAG is clear that apprenticeships require commitment. They demand time, planning, and a willingness to support people properly as they develop.

Apprentices will not arrive fully formed, but when investment is made deliberately, the returns accumulate. Structured apprenticeships reduce long-term recruitment pressure, support internal progression, and strengthen retention by creating visible pathways forward.

For Alexa, there is also a personal dimension:

“You bring somebody in who’s left school or college and decided this is what they want to do, and you’ve given them that opportunity. You reap that reward over and over again if you treat them in the right way and give them that foundation and platform to grow.”

Working with Baltic Apprenticeships

AAG IT Services has been working with Baltic Apprenticeships since 2019 to build a structured IT apprenticeship programme focused on long-term capability, progression, and retention.

Want to learn more about our Level 3 IT Apprenticeship programme?

Download your copy of the programme outline below.