Make vs. Buy Options

For a long time Project Controls with in the Rail Industry, in particular, has suffered from a lack of fresh new talent entering the profession at grass roots level.  With the view that lots of people tend to go down the Contract route of employment it is the responsibility of all in the profession to invest in new people coming into Project Controls. 

We here at Atkins launched an Apprenticeship Scheme two years ago, where we take on 4 students every year split between Birmingham and London.  The Apprentices start in the business and are enrolled onto an APM Higher Apprenticeship,  which sees them complete 13 assignments, 1 exam and 2 assessment essays in areas such as Scheduling, Risk, Cost Management and even Stakeholder Management.  This rounded approach has proven to give our young employees an unprecedented understanding of projects and how they are made up and managed.

We then take this broader Project Management training and supply in house training in Project Controls from our Head of Planning and Training Andrew Chillingsworth.  This two pronged approach to training has shown to give our apprentices a holistic understanding of Projects something that took me many years to gain through experience alone. 

After 14 months with the business and on the training course our apprentices have just completed their exams, with two of them performing very highly securing 74% and 72% grades in their exams, these results were the highest on their cohort.  So well done to all of our Project Controls Apprentices for seizing the opportunity given to you and proving your worth. 

The future of the industry looks very bright with huge programmes of work like High Speed 2, East West Rail and Electrification of our rail lines due to start if not already in progress.  We can now say we are supplying the industry with Project Controls professionals of the highest standard to help deliver the future of this country's infrastructure.