Rubery Owen Celebrates National Apprenticeship Week 2021

Rubery Owen are delighted to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, with an insight into our current and past apprentices. Due to the current climate, there has been an increased interest in apprenticeship programmes from individuals who would typically be interested in a university pathway, due to the instability of universities at this time. 

The Rubery Owen Group have always been keen to develop team members within each of our businesses, and in every department, through career and personal progression. Innovation is a core value for us, and our apprenticeship schemes add to this value by making sure our staff remain up to date with the latest technology and industry knowledge.

Throughout their apprenticeship within the Rubery Owen Group, each apprentice is assigned a training provider, alongside documentation such as risk assessments and credential checks, to ensure the success of the apprenticeship for the individual and the business. The training provider remains in contact with the business for the duration of the apprenticeship, to monitor progress through meetings with the appropriate manager and HR support, with regular feedback reports. End point assessments are carried out before the apprenticeships concludes, to make sure the individual has received relevant experience, training, and skills.

We work with a variety of apprenticeship providers to ensure we are obtaining the best support possible for our staff. For Rotech, our current apprenticeship provider is Corndel, for Merlin, we work with Halesowen College and Wolverhampton University, and for Shukers, we work with Hereford College and Babcock.

Apprentices onboarded within the Rubery Owen Group are involved heavily in the function of each business to ensure they receive excellent training and work experience. All apprentices are treated the same as another employee would be, with the same care, and they are expected to follow the same processes as the rest of the team.

Prior to working with the Rubery Owen Group, all apprenticeship providers are vetted to provide the best possible education for our staff, and we are always looking for providers who closely align with our core values and ethos. We look to provide our staff with the training needed to understand our values and operate within their roles efficiently, with opportunity for life skills improvement, and career progression.

Our apprenticeship opportunities are available for all age ranges, ranging from 12 months to three years, depending on the course. Past apprentices have been recruited through online means such as modern job websites, and word of mouth. Our apprenticeship scheme has remained strong throughout the current pandemic, with strict internal oversight to create the best experience for new and existing employees.

Our Apprentices of Past and Present

Our current apprentices include Charlotte Cartwright, a Compaction Scientist at Merlin Powder Characterisation, who joined us in 2011. Charlotte is currently continuing her career progression whilst collaborating with the Merlin team, completing a level three apprenticeship, before continuing onto level five.

Shawn Stokes is our Senior Machine Shop Technician at Rotech, who was recruited in 2011, joining his father at the company in the Mechanical Department. His role at Rotech is supported through the apprenticeship scheme to continue his career development and expertise. At Rotech, we also have Christopher Jones, a Senior Technician in the Mechanical Department who joined us in 2013, and is currently completing an apprenticeship.  

Tom Leggett is our current Service Technician apprentice at Ludlow Shukers Land Rover since 2019, who explains “I enjoy the great team I work with, and the fast pace of change in the products I’ve worked with, like the Land Rover PHEV and MHEV, it’s a great challenge to learn how complex the vehicles can be to fix”.

We have also had a variety of past apprenticeship success stories, such as Joe Barney, who became the Managing Director of Shukers in 2017, beginning his career with us in 2000 as a Parts Apprentice.

In Phoenix, our Operations Manager Sam Shevyn, and our Production Manager Tom Batham, also joined us through an apprenticeship. Sam joined Phoenix as a service and calibration engineer, achieving the runner up prize for apprentice of the year, at the Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards 2016. Tom successfully developed his industry expertise and growing company responsibilities whilst completing a Mechanical Engineering degree. To read our past article, click here 

The Importance of Apprenticeships

We take pride in the success of our apprenticeships, to grow and develop individuals and their skill sets within their chosen industries, whilst retaining valuable knowledge within the Rubery Owen Group.

Since the Modern Apprenticeship scheme was implemented in 1994, it has been vitally important to ensure that our teams have the correct skills in the workplace at the correct time, to ensure that Rubery Owen as a company are robust and are able to perform in the ever-changing landscape. It is also important to develop our teams and encourage them to grow and share their new learnt skills with the wider team. We are always looking for new ways to deliver apprentices in every division, to ensure that all teams are performing with the latest skills and knowledge in a role that is significantly contributing to the business.