National Apprenticeship Week is being celebrated around the country this week and Acorn are joining in.
During the week employers and apprentices from across England will come together to celebrate the success of apprenticeships whilst encouraging even more people to choose apprenticeships as a pathway to a great career.
Since the apprenticeship levy was launched in May 2017, it is important to demonstrate how the Acorn Engineering Group have been utilising this funding.
One key area in our business that has really benefited from our apprenticeship scheme is our electrical department which demonstrated a real skills gap in the industry. Back in August 2013, we made the decision to recruit two apprentices into this team. Both qualified as electricians under a structure programme that highlighted key milestones to be met throughout the course of the apprenticeship programme. One apprentice has gone on to be a permanent employee with the electrical team and has just passed his test and inspection exam.
With the success within the electrical team it was agreed to authorise another apprentice to join the team in September 2016, he has steadily been completing each aspect of his training and has successfully completed Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) and Emergency lighting Design exams. His college has stated that his overall performance is good and he has a 100% attendance and punctuality record.
With the Apprenticeship levy being introduced in May 2017, we made the decision to utilise the levy and authorised a further apprentice to join the electrical team in September 2017, this has been a partnership approach with JLT.
The apprenticeship scheme is part of our wider initiative the Acorn Academy. The academy was introduced into the business to bring better structure, consistency, visibility and availability to the training and development of our people.
Acorn will continue to seek further opportunities to bring apprentices into the business and also use the levy to fund our existing employees with their career development as there is a wide range of courses available under the Higher Apprenticeship scheme.