• • • AIR PRODUCTS APPRENTICESHIP • • •
Addressing the skills shortage
Over half of respondents to the latest survey from the Institution of Engineering and Technology believe that more apprenticeship funding is key to tackling engineering’s ongoing skills shortage. Here, 24-year-old Haydn, an electrical and instrumentation apprentice with global industrial gas company, Air Products, tells his story and explains why he believes pastoral care and a focus on well-being plays a key part in ensuring apprentices go the distance
B
eing a young person trying to start out in the world of work is not easy right now. Most of us just want to find a job we enjoy,
gain some independence, and earn a salary but the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by a cost-of-living crisis has made even that a tall order, not just because competition is especially tough but because a prolonged period of isolation and lack of social contact has really dented the confidence of a lot of young people. I read an article the other day about some
research from The Prince’s Trust. It basically said that more than a third of 16–25-year-olds feel their life is spiralling out of control and they’re scared about the future. If you’d asked me how I felt in the middle of the pandemic, I probably would have agreed. After I left college, I took a job as a scaffolder
through a friend’s dad. My parents had moved away so I wanted to get my own place and stay local, but the work stopped when Covid hit. It was a nerve-wracking time, and I was desperate to keep my independence. In between the first and second lockdown I
completed a personal trainer course but never started work as one, deciding to focus on finding an electrical apprenticeship instead. I’ve always been interested in electronics and as a kid I was permanently taking stuff apart, like X-boxes, and trying to fix them so it felt like a good fit for me. The personal trainer qualification gave me something to fall back on though as I knew that finding something in the electrical engineering field could be hard. Anyone that has gone through the job
application process during the pandemic will know how tough it is. You’ve got to have a thick skin. Of all the companies I contacted, a good six or seven never responded, and that can really knock your confidence. Fortunately, Air Products did respond and after an application process and an interview, I was accepted onto an electrical and instrumentation apprenticeship, which I started in August last year. Starting anything new is always daunting but I
think it’s been especially hard for young people in the last couple of years because they’re a bit out of practice at socialising and being independent.
16 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • NOVEMBER 2022 I’m lucky in many ways to be a bit older. When I
began the apprenticeship, I was 22 so had got a bit of life experience behind me, but a lot of apprentices that are starting out are fresh out of school, just 17 or 18 years old. Suddenly they find themselves miles away from home, in a totally different environment and without their usual friends and family around them. That’s why I think it’s so important that employers make sure that they’re thinking, not just about the learning part of the apprenticeship but about the well-being of the people that are doing it. It’s not really a surprise that, without this, people just drop out because it all gets too much to cope with. I’ve seen first-hand the difference that a focus
on well-being can make. Air Products has been brilliant on this. I’m from Didcot, but my training centre for the first year of my apprenticeship was in Hull. From the outset, the team at Air Products
really looked after me and the other apprentices, helping us to build social and professional networks and support systems. We were provided with shared apartments so
that we immediately had someone to chat to and socialise with. Some of us were doing different types of engineering apprenticeships so that was good too. It meant we could learn from each other and help each other out as the course covered a taster in all disciplines. As well as earning a wage, our apartments were
paid for by Air Products and were available throughout the whole of our time in Hull. This made a massive difference, not just financially (we could afford to carry on studying) but also in terms of helping us feel settled. We weren’t forced to pack up at the weekends or at the end of term and move out, it was a permanent base. I think that’s really important. It can be tiring starting something new and the
course was pretty intensive – classroom learning on Mondays and then workshop-based learning for the rest of the week. If I’d had to travel for hours to get home every weekend, it would have been much harder to keep going. There were little things too that made a huge
difference. We were each given a laptop to help with our learning. Once a week Air Products also paid for its apprentices to have a meal out together. That really helped us to get to know each other better and make friends which had a positive impact on everyone’s mental health too. If you feel settled and supported, you’re much
more likely to be able to work through things when the course is tough or you’re missing home. I saw the impact this had on people. There was one apprentice who didn’t really leave their room at first, other than for that meal. Bit by bit, you really saw their confidence grow, and we’ve ended up good friends. I’ve completed my year at the training centre
now and am enjoying working as part of the Air Products team at its Didcot site full time. The focus on well-being is still very much there though. No two days are the same and it’s an amazing opportunity to learn from people at different levels and from different disciplines. They’re really committed to health and safety so
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