This week is National Apprenticeship Week and this years theme is "Build The Future" and is designed to celebrate how apprentices can help business, communities and individuals to enhance the future workplace. This year has seen so much change to the "workplace" but with training opportunities like apprenticeships, businesses, economies and individuals can adapt and that is great news for us all.
Today's "theme" within the week of celebrations is Thank you Thursday and we at MPI have a lot of opportunities to say thank you for what apprenticeships have done for us as a business and for our clients and team members which is what we want to talk about today.
MPI have got a long and successful history of both internal apprentices and programmes we sponsor with our clients. MPI have been working with our clients for nearly a decade now sponsoring apprenticeships and using their programmes/facilities to play our part in contributing to the fabulous industries we work in.
In our Rail team we introduced a trainee scheme with one of our clients in 2016 to inspire and develop tomorrow’s workforce, create a diverse and inclusive workforce and connect with and support local communities. The scheme was designed for the signalling sector to focus on developing the following skills:
Trainee Assistant Installer
Trainee Installer
Trainee Team Leader
Trainee Mod 5 Tester
Trainee Mod 3B4 Tester
Trainee Mod 1 – Tester In Charge
Trainee SMTH Tester
Trainee Maintenance and Fault Finder
After the success of successfully putting many IRSE qualified individuals in the varying categories through the programme MPI has future plans for new programmes in other areas.
Our Managing Director, SImon Henser, had this to say "Our Railway Trainee and apprentices scheme for Railway personnel was initially developed with the aim of demonstrating MPI’s commitment to working with local communities, reducing the risk of fatigue and bridging the skills gap. The scheme has been open to a diverse pool of potential talent, ensuring those from economically disadvantaged areas were able to complete the scheme. Over 60 trainees and apprentices have gained their IRSE license in signal installation or testing grades. There has been a consistent shortage of IRSE licensed signalling personnel across the UK and the scheme and our apprentices is working hard to address these gaps on projects across the UK. There is once again new opportunities for the success of our Rail trainee scheme to continue with existing and new clients in the forthcoming months which we are excited about"
Proudly this scheme was also a finalist in various awards throughout the industry and communities we worked with.
In Aviation we have successfully sponsored a number of individuals with various clients using their internal apprenticeship programmes. We feel grateful that our clients allowed us this opportunity to positively contribute to the skills shortage and train the next generation. All our apprentices have gone onto have successful careers, with us, our clients and other companies in the industry. We also proudly had one finalist and another winner of "apprentice of the year".
Our Senior Commercial Director, John Herbert, had this to say "MPI have invested in our future by working closely with our clients sponsoring apprentices through their inhouse schemes. We are proud to have given opportunities to the team to go on to have successful careers within the Aviation industry."
And finally we have had some amazing individuals come through recruitment apprentices with us, all have passed with flying colours and we can confidently say they contribute daily to our fast moving, positive and dedicated business.
So in summary we want to thank our clients, our apprentices and the scheme generally for allowing us to continue to grow and develop our workplace and industries.