A Derbyshire business owner has marked National Apprenticeship Week by reporting his determination to keep improving life chances for young people, by offering valuable opportunities in the workplace as an alternative to costly university education.
Luke Parker, managing director of Acres Engineering – which makes bespoke engineered products for a range of clients – takes on around four apprentices a year in a range of departments at his manufacturing plant in Melbourne.
Luke has marked National Apprenticeship Week running from February 10 – 16 by telling of his passion for giving young people practical opportunities to learn as they earn, having started out as an apprentice himself.
He said: “We’ve taken on apprentices each year for around 15 years at Acres. Together with our regular work placement opportunities, we’ve given opportunities to around 100 young people in that time and we’ll keep on doing so.
“I’m very passionate about apprenticeships because I went through a full apprenticeship myself so I’m a big believer in learning as you earn and continued professional development.
“One of the benefits of doing an apprenticeship is that it’s a much broader way of learning. Rather than just going to university or college or work, you’re learning in different ways.
“At Acres we feel it’s really important to develop young people, giving them inspiration and exposing them to engineering and manufacturing roles that they didn’t necessarily know were around.
“Half our staff here have gone through an apprenticeship of some kind. We’ll provide help where needed such as writing an assessment, doing proper referencing and that kind of thing.
“It benefits us as a company too, in that it means we can place our recruits in areas of the business where they are most needed. It creates a really multi-skilled team.”
Olivia Ingram, 18, of Derby, has just completed a Level 3 apprenticeship in business administration at Acres, and is shortly about to undertake her next qualification. She joined the company after completing her GCSEs.
She said: “An apprenticeship has definitely been right for me. I’ve learned lots of life skills like money management, as well as working in all the office departments, and for me it has been for me a lot more beneficial than staying at school for another two years. If you don’t have practical experience backing up what you’re learning about, you can’t be confident talking about what you are doing. That even goes as far as learning to pick the phone up when someone rings in.
“Financially, it’s been a massive benefit because I’ve been able to buy myself a car. I’ve paid for all my driving lessons and passed my driving test.”
Warwick Prince, 22, is currently studying for a coveted degree apprenticeship in mechanical and machinery engineering at Acres, where his role involves creating CAD (Computer Aided Design) drawings to bring customer requirements to reality.
After dropping out of his university course two years in, he contacted Luke to inquire about an opportunity having come to Acres on work experience aged 16. At the time, Warwick was working part-time at McDonald’s.
He said: “The course I was originally doing at university wasn’t for me. As a student, you don’t get to do much practical stuff compared to if you’re working in this job. Here, I get to use the equipment I learn on, so it drills the learning into my head.
“I was applying for degree apprenticeships for around for about a year and a half before I secured this one.
“In this role I get to learn about business and management as well as engineering. It’s a win win really. You get to learn and achieve the qualifications that will benefit you in the future.”
Louis Bithell, 18, is getting plenty of experience with the welding gun while undertaking his apprenticeship: a level 2 qualification in welding and fabrication – the same apprenticeship that boss Luke started out his career by completing.
Louis came to the company after studying at college for a year.
He said: “I wanted to start earning money and doing what I actually enjoyed doing instead of going to college and learning about it.
“I’m enjoying my apprenticeship. I’m starting to work on my own jobs now. I didn’t really enjoy school and I wasn’t very academic, I like hands on work. There are a lot of things still manufactured in Britain and it’s great to be part of it.”
This story was written and shared on behalf of Acres Engineering by Lucy Stephens. Can we share your news and get you in the headlines too? Find out how we can help by getting in touch.
