Upskilling is a crucial part of professional development and, with the campaign for apprenticeship schemes making headlines, UK business and industry are faster adopting this style of learning and training.
With a new government Apprenticeship Levy set to take hold from April this year, businesses across the country are welcoming the need to adapt to meet government aims to boost productivity by investing in the labour force.
At Wienerberger, our focus is on broadening the skill set of staff and investing in apprentices to help realise a robust and enhanced learning and development strategy that feeds into our overall business plan. We also believe that apprenticeships can be transformative for both the company and our employees alike; achieving a working life for staff that is both rewarding and fulfilling is a key objective for us.
We aim to see many more apprenticeship schemes across all areas of the organisation, from management and marketing to customer services and health and safety. The new government levy makes this a strategy we can more readily explore. Following on from this, we hope to see the age bracket of our apprentices broaden and apprenticeship schemes emerge as a preferred way to promote development for individuals.
Wienerberger has seen a steady flow of apprentices into our various sites, including head office, in the past two years. With three of the current 18 apprentices set to qualify this year and an Apprentice of the Year award winner amongst our ranks, the schemes are seeing strong results and we would like to see this continue.
Carole Goodwin is human resources director at Wienerberger
