National Apprenticeship Week, now in its 17th year, is an annual, week-long celebration of apprenticeships. The week brings together businesses and apprentices across the country to shine a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make to individuals, businesses and the wider economy. The theme for National Apprenticeship Week 2024 is “Skills for Life”.
Becoming an apprentice allows people to increase their confidence, skills, knowledge and develop some incredible careers, but from a business perspective there are just as many benefits to employing an apprentice or using the apprenticeship route for training. The skills gap in the engineering industry is a challenge. Apprenticeships help fill the skills gaps, upskill and ensure a business is future proof and future ready.
Building a pathway to success
At JCA, we believe that nurturing talent and providing people with the skills and knowledge to excel in their careers is an important part of the company’s future success. Our apprenticeship programme provides a structured learning pathway. Apprentices attend college and are exposed to a structured programme of learning at work.
We currently have nine apprentices across the business and are looking to grow that number with every year. Most of our apprentices start off on a Maintenance and Operations Engineering Technician programme at Level 3 and are based on our maintenance sites for example at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Kao Data in Harlow. This will provide them with a sound basis to progress later into the world of projects, design or to further develop their skills and technical experience as maintenance engineers. It is our aim to provide a variety of work placements for all the apprentices across healthcare, commercial and data centre sites.
Each apprentice is assigned a mentor who provides support, career guidance and ensures that the right learning opportunities are available throughout the apprenticeship.
Meet some of our mentors
“Jake and Jaime were assigned to the Kao Data MSD contract in December 2022. In my role as a mentor and line manager, I regularly liaise with Jake and Jaime as well as with their college to track their progress. I also provide advice, guidance and support.
The Technicians at Kao Data like having apprentices on site and are always happy to help mentor and work with them. They have both been a really positive addition to our team.”
Martin Woodrow, Operations Manager at Kao Data, Harlow
“The apprentice programme run by JCA is very comprehensive as it allows people of different ages, abilities and even stages of development to join the company scheme.
At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital we have apprentices ranging from 17 to 28 and undertaking, Electrical, Building Services and Design apprenticeships. Whilst working at the hospital the apprentices engage in work with their colleagues and buddies (designated engineer) to learn on the job training. All our apprentices are very involved in the hospital and will carry out the competent person training for each element of work.”
Brian Eaton, Engineering Manager at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Meet some of our apprentices
Growing local talent
At JCA we are committed to making positive contributions to the communities we operate in. We aim to provide apprenticeships and work placements at our organisation to develop individuals from those communities with on-the-job training leading to nationally recognised qualifications within our industry.
This year, we have been involved in an exciting new STEM programme organised by Hertfordshire County Council, aimed at providing access to information about STEM careers to young people in education in North Herts. We are attending careers events, our apprentices are giving talks at schools and we’re also providing work experience for students from schools in the area.
