Taking on an apprentice can feel like a big step, so why not hear from an employer who’s been in your position and taken the plunge?
We currently support more than 1,000 apprentices, with over 320 new starters every year. The businesses we help vary hugely, from large to small and automotive to aerospace.
JLR, Rolls-Royce, Ibstock Brick and Severn Trent Water all trust Make UK to train their engineers.
And so do hundreds of smaller manufacturing and engineering businesses facing the same workforce pressures you are.
Richard Sadler, Chief Technical & People Officer at Sertec
Richard knows more than most about apprenticeships, having started his career with one on his 18th birthday in 2004.
Today he’s Chief Technical & People Officer at Sertec, a Birmingham-based automotive parts manufacturer. Part of his role is developing the company’s people and culture to meet future business needs.
Why does Sertec keep recruiting apprentices?
The skills Sertec needs are getting harder to find on the open market, particularly in tooling and technical roles.
Richard said: “We’re very proud of bringing our own people through. But it’s also practical. We can project where our future skill gaps are – around tooling and the tool room especially – and we know we won’t be able to just hire our way out of it. We have to develop our own technical skills, which is really important to us.”
Sertec’s apprentices are now recruited into a specific pathway, such as process improvement or tooling, rather than joining a general rotation.
Richard’s team learned early on that a broad rotation without clear direction left apprentices well-rounded but unsure where their career was heading.
Sertec’s early careers programme now keeps apprentices engaged and gives them something to aim for in the short, medium and long term.
What if we invest in an apprentice and they leave?
It’s a question Richard is asked often.
He said: “It’s rare, and it’s ones and twos, not something drastic. Our retention is extremely good and better than the industry average. And when it does happen, we treat it as our issue to resolve, not the apprentice’s fault. If someone’s leaving because we haven’t given them the opportunities we should have, that’s on us to fix.”
Every quarter, Sertec’s apprentices meet leaders and directors to talk about what they’re working on and what they want next, and to learn about projects and parts of the business they wouldn’t otherwise see. It keeps apprentices invested in a future at the company, not just in their own development.
What does an apprentice give the business day to day?
For Richard, the value is in growing people who know how Sertec works and can help shape where it goes next, rather than bringing in someone who’s starting from scratch.
He said: “Everything needs to be made, everything needs to be designed. Right now we’re looking at how AI and Industry 5.0 change how we digitise and move the business forward. That’s the world an apprentice at Sertec steps into. It’s not just a job on a shop floor or completing low-level tasks, they all add value.”
Where can an apprenticeship actually lead?
Richard was 18 when he started his apprenticeship at Sertec, and he became a director in his early thirties.
He said: “I don’t think you could have written it. The grounding I got at a very early age, and being able to apply myself across different parts of the business so early on, was what created that push.”
Richard now leads the early careers programme he once joined.
What do the apprentices think about it?
Apprenticeships don’t just benefit employers, they’re the start of an amazing journey for employees.