National Apprenticeship Week

Apprenticeships can offer real opportunities to those who are not inclined to spend tens of thousands of pounds to attend university and wish to start earning straight away. If you have practical skills and the ability to learn through a combination of on the job and classroom training, apprenticeships provide a fully funded means of learning a valued trade while earning a competitive salary. This proven direction has offered apprentices a gateway to real career progression into senior management and technical positions.

The current edition of Lift Industry News focuses on a new standard for Lift Apprenticeships and on pages 24, 25, 26, 27 and 39 you can read how Pickerings are contributing to the development of Apprenticeship standards Link

Pickerings is one of the oldest lift engineering firms in the UK. Family owned since inception; we were a founding member of LEIA in 1932. More recently, January 2024 saw us open our 15th regional office, in East Anglia.

The editorial interviews our HR Manager - Rachel Swales

We have colleagues who spend their entire career with us, from their apprenticeship right through to retirement. Some staff have been here for 25 or 40 years, and it’s important to us to celebrate these people. In fact, we had so many colleagues hitting these milestones last year that we held three celebratory lunches. We make sure that we recognise these moments, as we understand that continuity of service is vital, not just for our customers, but for our team members as well. Retaining experience means that our apprentices have a strong and knowledgeable workforce to learn from - it’s invaluable. The experienced engineers not only pass on all the mandatory training, but offer insights on behaviour as well, which goes hand in hand with the practical skills.

Our apprentices aren’t just picking up technical skills for the job, but a combination of knowledge, skills, and behaviours; how to interact with customers as well as internal departments. It’s not just isolated learning on how to fix a lift, there’s so much more.

Training and progression are embedded into the culture of our company, not just professional training, but personal development as well. We invest in training, which brings with it confidence, and we understand that if our people are confident, they feel empowered to perform well and then take on responsibilities they might never have done otherwise. We also like to promote from within, offering a strong career progression alongside those personal development opportunities.

I have a great enthusiasm for apprentices, and I think it’s so important to share with young people the potential career opportunities that a lift apprenticeship can lead to.

Sam Bullement - L3 Lift & Escalator Electro Mechanic Apprenticeship Standard in Lift Installation.? Sam is in his practical period of his apprenticeship.

Oliver Gillespie – L3 Lift & Escalator Electro Mechanic Apprenticeship Standard in Lift Service & Repair. Oliver has successfully completed his practical period and has entered gateway with his End Point Assessment pending.? End Point Assessment Organisation is LEIA.

Robert Rennie – L3 Lift & Escalator Electro Mechanic Apprenticeship Standard in Lift & Service & Repair. Robert has just started his apprenticeship and commenced his practical period.

Reece Marshall (Not pictured) – has successfully passed his L3 Lift & Escalator Electro Mechanic Apprenticeship Standard in Lift Engineer and is now working as a valuable team member in the role of Lift Service and Call out Engineer.

We encourage and facilitate work experience as a pre-cursor to an apprenticeship here. This is a great opportunity for someone considering a lift apprenticeship to have a taste and see what a day in the life of an apprentice is like. Often our apprentices join us straight from school or college, so a work experience placement gives a great insight to the world of work. The Apprenticeship Standard is flexible, and training can be tailored to the individual. For example, if someone’s come in straight from school, we’ll start them off differently to someone who’s come in with a BTech or from an allied trade, there’s plenty of scope to be able to do that.

At each of our 15 regional offices we have a network of engineers, a management and administration team, and we have various apprentices across all those teams, including at our Head Office. It’s our ethos to take on apprentices to train and retain them – it always has been – and we see many of our apprentices grow through the business to management. Our long serving, experienced team members are a critical part of our success and add great value to the positive impact on our apprentices’ learning.

It’s been a career highlight of mine to have contributed to the Trailblazer group for lift apprenticeships and the development of an industry standard apprenticeship, but also to have seen first-hand the progression of our wonderful apprentices on their journeys.

You can see a feature of one of our other apprentices, Reece, who has recently completed his apprenticeship, on page 39. His manager, Rob, followed the same path, starting here as an apprentice and working up to management, which I think is so valuable for them both, to have that common thread and mutual understanding. Rob knows exactly the path that Reece is walking, and Reece can see that Rob’s been through it all ahead of him which is a great support.

Promoting the lift industry as a rewarding and fulfilling career, especially to young people studying a STEM course, would definitely raise the profile of our industry. I think we must work hard for the lift industry to be considered as a popular first career choice. The more we can connect with schools and colleges, and open our doors to young people, the better insight they will have. We’ve found this to be a good pathway that leads into apprenticeships. It also helps the school or college with finding work placements for students, offering valuable real life work experiences. Then once we are seen as a rewarding career choice, it raises the profile of the lift industry for the following year groups.

We are a founding member of LEIA, and it’s important for us to maintain this membership for the reassurance of our customers and to keep our well-earned credibility in the industry. We recognise that we have a greater responsibility beyond our own company and it’s vital that we support and interact with our peers for the greater good of the industry.

We are growing, if you know of anyone who would be interested in pursuing a career with Pickerings, please visit https://www.pickeringslifts.co.uk/careers

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