National Apprenticeship Week

19th March 2021

In 2019 we recruited our first apprentice. Josh has been part of the Airedale family for 6 months and works alongside our six-strong maintenance team, to carry out repairs and regular checks on equipment to ensure the smooth running of our site. We sat down with Josh to find out more about him and why he chose to become an apprentice.

In 2018/19, there were 393,000 apprenticeship starts in England, 25% of these were from people aged under 19.*

How old are you?

Where are you studying?

I spend 1 day a week studying at Appris in Bradford. Appris is a not for profit registered charity that works with businesses like Airedale to help supply engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships.

How did you hear about the apprenticeship vacancy at Airedale?

Airedale was involved in an apprenticeship open evening hosted by Appris. I expressed interest in the apprenticeship vacancy and was then invited for an interview.

What are you looking forward to most about your apprenticeship?

Learning new skills and applying what I learn at college to a real-life work setting.

What has been your favourite thing you’ve done during your apprenticeship thus far?

Helping with the installation of Airedale’s new mixing vessel.

As a business, we are looking forward to seeing Josh develop and progress throughout his apprenticeship and hope that this will be the start of a long-term career for him. As part of our continued succession planning, we are also in the process of recruiting more apprentices in 2020.

*https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN06113