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Hewlett says ‘you’re hired’ to 12 new apprentices.
The word ‘apprenticeship’ has been big news recently. Only last week Prime Minister David Cameron gave his backing to apprenticeships say they ‘offer a fantastic opportunity for people to gain the skills they need for the jobs of the future, equipping the country for our goal to build long-term sustainable growth.
This week, Hewlett Civil Engineering has announced its commitment to increase its budget for Apprenticeships and has created 12 new places, giving more people the opportunity to become full time employees with the company.
Training Manager at Hewlett, Steve Vickers said that Hewlett’s investment in training the next generation of highly skilled construction workers would be a small contribution to the overall sustainable economic growth of the country, and a vital contribution to maintaining the company’s skill base and business success.
He says: “Competition for apprenticeships is tough and we receive hundreds of applications for the limited places available at Hewlett every year.
“An apprenticeship with Hewlett is a first-class way to start a career. The job market is more competitive. There are far fewer vacancies and more people applying for them. Classroom learning is no longer the only route to new skills and valuable qualifications and tuition fees are putting people off university. An apprenticeship with Hewlett is an attractive proposition. A healthy percentage of our apprentices have progressed to higher stages of learning and qualifications through our training programs and even on to supervisor and senior management roles within the company.”
Initially Hewlett is offering the 12 Apprenticeship places to friends and family of its employees. Explains Steve Vickers: “The ongoing loyalty of our employees is one of our biggest assets and so by offering our Apprenticeship places to friends and family of our staff we are recognising their hard work and commitment. It’s also a great way of finding high quality recruits, encouraging motivation amongst the workforce and opening doors to a better future.”
Hewlett has also been bringing Civil Engineering business into schools, and recently invited students from South Leeds Academy to spend a day its Cross Green training Centre for a taster session in Civil Engineering.
Currently studying for a Diploma in Construction, the youngsters aged between 16 and 17 years were given the opportunity to operate a variety of machinery including Excavators and Telehandlers in a safe and informed environment which reflected ‘live’ construction site conditions.
Established in Leeds in 1987, Hewlett has progressively developed and expanded its activities from its head office in the city to establish itself as one of the North’s leading civil engineering contractors. It now also operates from a new office in Warwick. The Company is focused on training with its own training school based at Cross Green in Leeds providing an extensive range of training programmes for both employer and employee, and covering a wide spectrum of disciplines from telescopic forklift training to safety and managerial courses.
The training facility, set on a 10-acre site, is the largest construction training area in Yorkshire, offering varied terrains and conditions to carry out instruction and assessments. It reflects 'live’ site conditions, and is unique in its provision of the CITB touch screen tests on the premises. In addition, the modern classroom facilities provide an excellent environment for presentation and study for the new theory tests.
The training division is CSkills, City and Guilds, LANTRA, EDEXCEL and SQA accredited.