Making Apprenticeships Work for Our Business
This week is the 13th National Apprenticeship Week (3rd to 9th February 2020), celebrating the diversity and value that apprentices bring.
At Pexhurst, we’ve been running an apprenticeship programme for several years, as a core part of our talent strategy. We’ve seen the true benefits and success it brings our company and the young people who are developing their careers with us.
To ensure apprenticeship programmes are successful, both parties should be committed to the other. By ensuring we take on apprentices that have a strong desire to learn about the industry and the work we do, we are setting ourselves up for success rather than failure.
A Recipe for Success
One of our apprentices, John Ford, joined us 21 years ago as a 16-year-old trainee carpenter. Through his dedication and passion to learn more, he’s now a site manager, running larger and more complex projects every day.
Apprenticeship schemes go some way to filling the huge skills shortage that currently faces the UK’s construction and property industry. They are a great way for companies like ours to encourage fresh talent to join the industry and develop life-long careers. For us, it is a great way to maintain a highly skilled team.
Nurturing Talent
We believe apprentices are worth the extra nurturing from the start. We have found that where we invest in the younger generation, they tend to stay with us for the long-term. I would hope that one, if not more, will take a position at board level.
Our apprenticeship schemes typically take on the same structure. Currently, we are running a construction management programme, where our apprentices study one day per week at college and are on-site for the rest of the week. When college is closed they work full-time on-site.
The training and development of our team are very important to us, and we encourage staff to learn more. Following completion of their apprenticeship programmes, we offer our apprentices the opportunity to enrol on a day release degree at the University of Hertfordshire. Every apprentice is assigned a mentor, who they meet with on a regular basis as well as chat to, to ensure their Pexhurst journey reaches its full potential.
We have plans to take on more apprentices over the coming years in other fields.
