Those looking to take on more work: do you find apprentices?

You're right in that it's difficult to find great staff for any organisation. Normally it's the cost and admin for businesses to recruit, retain and train employees. A well-known secret, even to the government. I'd make a rough estimate and say the majority of hiring I'm doing now is to comply with IR35 and putting staff on casual contracts. However in days gone by you could probably just get them to invoice you. Most of the staff I'm getting is through reaching out to your network and offering work to people, some stay - some go. This is just my personal experience. But for the majority of companies on here I can bet they don't advertise to their full extent and either recruit through the merchants or approach colleges for apprentices. I would further say that many sole traders (previously me) are that, sole traders, and find it difficult to switch to a building firm where there are many employees on the books. Becoming a paper pusher when you're used to being hands on is a hard transition to make. As a result most only take on 1 apprentice, which as said is burdensome to your cash flow and requires problem solving to overcome. Recruitment has many strands and I think that the large recruiting companies haven't quite sussed it yet. As long as your costs for companies to advertise are market beating and you can manage the admin side of business; many businesses will flock to you in an over-saturated recruitment market.

I think that nothing is more difficult for a Contractor than to find someone who is helpful and trustworthy, but my advice is that even when you find that wonderful person who has both qualities, some good efforts must be made to keep.