Many hospitality apprentices are young workers and can be more vulnerable to workplace exploitation, which can discourage them from completing their apprenticeship. BETA and the Fair Work Ombudsman partnered to improve hospitality apprentices’ experiences in the workplace.
We designed a series of clear and timely education messages targeted at both the employer and the apprentice with information about their workplace rights and obligations. There was a high level of engagement with our messages: the average click-through rate of 19% was five times higher than global benchmarks for the government sector.
We also conducted a randomised controlled trial to test the impact on apprentice retention rates. However, this was cut short due to the impact of COVID-19 had on the hospitality industry. While we did not find evidence of an impact on short-term retention rates, this may be because: we lacked sufficient sample size, the messages had a delayed effect on drop-out decisions, or they had no impact on retention rates.
ADDITIONAL TRIAL INFORMATION
Trial start and end date: 11 September 2019 to 30 September 2020
Intervention start and end date: 18 September 2019 to 30 April 2020
Ethics approval:
Name: Bellberry Human Research Ethics Committee
Approval Number: 2018-12-1061-A-2
Approval Date: 23 August 2019
Experimental design including randomisation:
A two-arm cluster randomised trial, to be evaluated using quantitative (administrative and survey data) and qualitative data (interviews).
Apprentices and their employers will be enrolled in batches, based on monthly commencement data of apprentices, to reach the desired sample size.
Randomisation will be clustered at the business level and stratified by business size, for each batch of apprentices and their employers. The allocation ratio for the two arms of the trial will be 1:1.
Intervention(s): Apprentices and employers in the treatment arm will receive a series of messages (SMS and email) in pairs. The control arm will not receive any intervention (pure control). The messages are informed by a range of behavioural insights.
Control condition: Pure control - the control group will not receive any messages.
Outcome(s):
Primary outcome:
- Retention rate of apprentices as a binary measure (whether or not the apprentice is still in their training during the period of the trial).
Supplementary outcomes:
- Apprentices’ self-reported supervisor support
- Apprentices’ self-reported workplace experience
- Apprentice and employer awareness and understanding of workplace laws
- Apprentices’ and employers’ confidence in raising and resolving workplace issues
- Likelihood of contract cancellation
Expected sample size: Participants in the trial are estimated to be approximately 3,000 apprentices, and their approximately 1,000 employers. The assignment ratio between control and treatment arms will be 1:1.
Other: AEA pre-registration
