Skills for Life: Today’s Apprentices Are Tomorrow’s Professionals
It’s national apprenticeship week so it only seems right that we do our bit to promote and extoll the virtues of apprenticeships. True, they are not suited to everyone, and they may not suitable for every business, but as the breadth of job functions represented and industries that offer apprenticeships increases, we rarely hear of any negatives.
Carrington West works with private and public sector organisations, recruiting for highly technical roles. These are the perfect professions to offer apprenticeships. On-the-job learning, coupled with an element of more formal teaching that comes from a college or university, allows young people or those looking to reskill to gain a qualification whilst practically applying what they learn in real-time.
Luke Clifford, who leads our highways project delivery team says,
“Almost all our tier one contractor clients have embraced apprenticeships in one form or another. They leverage their established employer brand names and extensive resources to attract school and college leavers into the technical roles that they know they will need to grow their businesses.”
Luke goes on to highlight the example of Kiera, FTSE 250 construction, civil engineering and property company that employs over 10,000 people. Their careers site proudly states that they currently have 646 apprentices, that’s 6.5% of their workforce, and a clear indication of the level of investment they are putting into training the engineers of the future.
It's a similar story in the water sector. Dave Kua is our water team Department Manager, and he adds,
"Apprenticeships for practical and design level roles are an absolutely essential element of the skills pipeline for the water industry. Public and private sector water teams are under pressure to meet regulatory and sustainability goals and they cannot do it without investing in training now. It is heartening to see that an increasing number of water companies are signing up to the 5% Club, which asks organisations to commit to working towards having 5% of their workforce in “earn & learn” positions.”
Tackling the skills gaps of the future is at the heart very heart of apprenticeship schemes. The rising cost of tertiary education and an increasingly diverse population where not everyone has had access to formal education. Apprenticeships are the perfect way for people to build their skills.
Here at Carrington West, we have benefited enormously from the apprentices we have had join our marketing, compliance, finance and business support teams. We have found that an apprentice adds value from day one. The skills they acquire in their early journey can be quickly applied to their roles. In the marketing team alone, we have had a digital marketing apprentice who has recently progressed to the next level, and we currently have a level 3 marketing apprentice, Morgan. I asked Morgan why she chose an apprenticeship and what she liked most,
“After deciding University wasn’t for me, I decided that the apprenticeship scheme would be well suited to me and my learning styles. Since joining I have learnt so much, not only within marketing, but also in the recruitment industry and sectors in which we work. I have loved being able to learn from experienced people around me and through doing rather than reading from a textbook. I am truly grateful for this opportunity; I believe that I now have skills and knowledge which will help me throughout my career. I would recommend completing an apprenticeship to those considering.”
Morgan will be joining other apprentices from the Portsmouth area this week on Shaping Portsmouth’s apprenticeship bus as it visits local schools giving pupils the opportunity to speak to apprentices face-to-face.
