NEWS EXTRA TP TAPS INTO APPRENTICESHIPS WEEK
Builders merchant group Travis Perkins is the industry’s largest provider of apprenticeships, with well over 1000 currently on their books. In advance of National Apprenticeship Week this month, Fiona Russell Horne went to investigate.
YOU DON’T GET to be the merchanting industry’s latest provider of apprenticeships overnight. At Travis Perkins, the process has been building for roughly the last five years, according to HR director Emma Rose, and the programme runs across the group brands, including Travis Perkins, BSS, Toolstation, Keyline and CCF.
“We currently have around 1,100 apprentices on around 45 different apprenticeship programmes. These span skills-based learning but also leadership skills. The programme goes across the sector, ranging from kitchen design and sales, through merchandising, first- line management, and people management right up to MBA level,” she says.
The Travis Perkins commitment to the concept goes beyond its own borders too, as the group is powering the Builders Merchants Federation’s apprenticeship programme, via LEAP (Learn as You Earn Apprenticeship Programme). They will be BMF Apprenticeships Plus branded, but they will be powered by Travis Perkins, who will be providing the content and the team that sits behind the delivery. “One of our purposes as a business is to help to build better communities and enrich lives,” Rose explains.
“That includes building skills for the next generation of people. Not just for our business but for the sector as a whole. We want to share the expertise that we’ve built. Other businesses may not have the scale or the resources that we do to deliver apprenticeships; we have already developed them and they’re up and running.
“We know that there will be a big gap in terms of resourcing the sector in the years to come. We all have a responsibility to help to drive the attractiveness of the sector, the quality of skills across
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to young people who might be looking for work. We recently hired our first apprentice through Centrepoint and we have a good relationship with the Construction Youth Trust.” Travis Perkins group was also a big provider of roles on the Government’s Kickstart programme, which offerd six- month jobs for young people aged 16 to 24 years old who were currently claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment. Over 500 Kick- starters have been recruited , and the intention was always to permanently hire a significant number of them. So far, Rose says, over 200 of them have been hired into permanent roles.
“Hopefully, they will go on to apprenticeship schemes going forward.
the sector, because ultimately it will help us all .
Within the overall apprenticeship programme are a range of options, levels and durations. Levels, Two and Tree last for around 12 to 18 months, Levels Four, Five and Six tend to be longer, more complex, and, in some cases, with the option to set individual time limits. Every apprentice has a personal coach who helps them through the learning, provides additional support. “In some cases, we are including things like basic English and maths to support the apprenticeship programmes as well as life skills in general. We have a big team of apprenticeship coaches, and they literally hold the hands of each one through their apprenticeship. We know that every single one of them will have a point during the programme where they just want to stop. It’s hard to study and work at the same time. We all understand that, so our coaches are there to help our apprentices manage that, working
“One of our purposes as a business is to help to build
better communities and enrich lives,”
with them, their managers and teams and in branches to help and support them to get through it. It’s a reasonable commitment actually, for our colleagues and for their managers. I visit branches most weeks and I would say 90% of the branches I visit have at least one apprentice.”
Recruitment of apprentices is via a variety of routes which Andy Rayner, TP head of apprenticeships, is adding to all the time, Rose says. “More and more we are to fill our core vacancies with apprentices. We advertise on a lot of traditional job boards. We have also formed partnerships with organisations who have access
So, we are really looking at different routes into the business, and going out to find young people, rather than always using traditional routes to fill those roles.” The content of the programmes will develop over time as sector needs change. Data literacy, for example. Rose says the group has recently introduced three data apprenticeships which have been very popular.
“Plus, we are building modules into all our apprenticeships around sustainability. I think we have a job to do for the younger generations to help attract them into the sector,” she adds.
“We need to make it feel relevant and exciting in terms of the skills that they can learn but also the skills that they can bring us. The more we can enhance and accelerate the skills development, the lower the barriers are to entry and the more quickly they can progress. We certainly see a lower level of turnover when people join us on onto apprenticeships, so we know that it’s really supports talent retention. And that will go for the sector as a whole, as well as our business.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net February 2022
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