Working with the local school was challenging as apprenticeships had previously been viewed as something that if you were unable to go into further education you could consider. We set about educating both pupils and careers staff as to the opportunities that apprenticeships offered. This was done through various career days and career talks.
We decided the best way to address the need was to ‘grow our own’. From having one apprentice every other year, we planned to take on at least 2 per year across all trades from 2002.
Our target was to have 10 fully operational by 2010
Given that the national standards for modern apprenticeships in our industry are set by CITB we did not have input into that skill content we decided to enhance the content where we could. This was done in the following ways –
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recruiting slightly older apprentices and in some cases adult apprentices. This provided both parties with greater commitment and ability at an early stage
- selecting the colleges considered to have the greatest expertise in the trade we needed. We have used James Watt College, Reid Kerr College, Cardonald College and Metropolitan College
- using the considerable expertise we have through our existing staff. The result of this was the quality of work was kept high but also ensured that the apprentices gained experience from a range of senior staff
- where appropriate, apprentices were also given additional training, for example first aid and customer service. We had always provided high quality craft skills but were finding the softer skills were just as important as our staff had to communicate directly with our customers and the standard of communication and customer service became as important to our reputation and growth
- we also established a social network between staff and included apprentices, this gave them a feeling of belonging to a team.
Since 2002 we have now had 20 apprentices and they are all still employed by us. This equates to over 20% of our current workforce – we must have done something right!
Putting a financial value on this is impossible as although there is a direct cost through wages and college costs, the other costs in tradesmen’s time in supporting them on the job, the cost of supporting them when they are still learning and making mistakes and the costs relating to recruitment are intangible and have not been measured. What we do know is that by introducing this programme we have been able to grow our business and continue to provide secure employment for almost 100 staff in the current difficult economic climate.
The biggest benefit we have had is in the growth of our company during what has been one of the most difficult economic times for our industry. Over the past 8 years our employees and turnover has more than doubled.
Since we started this programme we have actually trained 100% more apprentices than we had originally planned for. We planned for 10 and now have 20 fully trained and still with us, we had originally planned in some attrition but all have stayed.
Our reputation for a quality service has continued to grow. Our apprentices are trained to company standards as well as national standards, they learn good habits early and know the importance of quality and customer service.
Within our industry we are asked to make a 4 year commitment to our apprentices often while working with a 6 month order book – this was a commitment we were willing to make, although it has not always been easy.
We are now seeing the benefits of our young vibrant workforce cascading upwards throughout the organisation. It is good to feel that they are now influencing the behaviour of some of the more senior team with their positive attitude and new innovative ideas.
The effect on community is that now youngsters aspire to be apprentices. They see it as a career they want to undertake and competition for our places is very high. The school now regularly asks our managers and apprentices along to talk to year groups. As a rural location it is also important that we are able to keep young people working locally and keep incomes within the area.
The biggest achievement so far that we can directly attribute to our apprentice scheme was winning a major contract to fit 60 kitchens and bathrooms for Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA) – this contract was negotiated, priced, won and all work completed by a team of workers who were all under 25.
As we look to the future we know this team will take our company forward and will be our managers of the future. It is our intention to continue to provide the training support they require to achieve this. One of our early apprentices within this group has already undergone management training and is currently attending a management development programme.
Within the large kitchen and bathroom replacement project we are doing for ACHA the core team running this consists of – project manager (23), two joiners (23) plumber (24), electricians (22 and 20 and 18) – all previous trade apprentices with us. Within this team we had –
3 award winners – Construction management 1st and 2nd year
Student of the year – Metropolitan College
Apprentice of the year – Cardonald college
Runner up in Scotland for Electrical Contractor Association Apprentice of Year
We do not know of any other construction company in Scotland with this level of success through it’s apprentices.
