This paper investigates effective strategies for enhancing completion rates of apprentices and their retention after completing their training. The study was cross sectional and qualitative, involving semi‐structured interviews with managers and four focus groups involving current and completed apprentices from within the engineering sector. The findings revealed that the factors that can enhance intentions of completing an apprenticeship were perceived organisation support (POS) factors such as apprentice pay, recognition and employer support. Leader Member Exchange (LMX) factors such as support from trainers and supervisors, would increase their intentions to complete an apprenticeship and stay on with an organisation after training. The key Percieved Organisational Support factors that would enhance intentions to stay with the organisation after completion were post apprenticeship pay, career progression and challenging and interesting work. Participants with high Perceived Organisational Support and Leader‐Member Exchange, had higher intentions of completing an apprenticeship and staying with the employer after completion and vice versa. This research added to the literature on apprenticeships as it analysed the factors influencing current and completed apprentices’ intentions to discontinue or complete an apprenticeship and stay with or leave their employer after completion through the lens of social exchange theory (SET) (Blau, 1964). This is unlike previous studies that emphasised motivation theory. Social Exchange Theory was supported as both employers and apprentices weighed the costs and benefits of their relationship which impacted on their completion and retention choices. The implication of this study is that employers should develop effective strategies for enhancing completion and retention rates to reap the full benefits from apprenticeships.

中文翻译：

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社会交流视角下的北爱尔兰学徒培训完成与保留调查

本文研究了提高学徒完成率及其完成培训后的保留率的有效策略。该研究是横断面的和定性的，涉及对经理和四个焦点小组的半结构化访谈，涉及工程领域内现有和已完成的学徒。调查结果表明，可以增强完成学徒计划的意图的因素是组织支持（POS）因素，例如学徒工资，认可和雇主支持。领导者交流（LMX）等因素，例如培训人员和主管的支持，将会增加他们完成学徒并在培训后继续留在组织中的意图。能够提高在完成工作后留在组织中的意愿的关键的组织支持因素是学徒后薪资，职业发展以及富有挑战性和有趣的工作。具有较高组织感知能力和领导者－成员交流的参与者，有更高的意愿完成学徒期，并在完成后与雇主待在一起，反之亦然。这项研究增加了关于学徒制的文献，因为它通过社会交换理论（SET）的角度分析了影响当前和已完成的学徒制终止或完成学徒制以及在完成工作后留下或离开其雇主的意图的因素（布劳，1964年） 。这不同于以往的强调动机理论的研究。社会交换理论得到支持，因为雇主和学徒都权衡了关系的成本和收益，这影响了他们的完成和保留选择。这项研究的意义在于，雇主应该制定有效的策略来提高完成率和保留率，以从学徒中获得全部收益。