In the UK it’s the 15th annual National Apprenticeship Week, a week that celebrates and promotes the benefits of an apprenticeship for both learners and employers.

A career route that is becoming more and more popular amongst young individuals and employers with a national statistic showing, between August and October 2020/2021:

Over 130,000 individuals started an apprenticeship 

Around 555,000 participants were in an apprenticeship programme

“Apprenticeships offer people of all ages the chance to earn while they learn and build a successful career, while also delivering the skilled workforce this country needs to build back stronger.” Said, Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi.

Many companies have embraced this programme and one of those companies is Bouygues Energies & Services, who believe in investing in young raw talent and giving them the tools, they need to get the best out of their ability and choose a career that A. they enjoy and B. that’s rewarding. They take on apprentices for a wide variety of roles whether you want to be an accountant, estimator or even an engineer there’s a role for you.

We caught up with Tom Gibson, Apprentice Estimator, Bouygues Energies & Services who explained: 

“I wanted an apprenticeship that would challenge me and that would teach me something completely new and at Bouygues Energies & Services, the structure of the role and way the company allows an apprentice to fit in nicely to a well-experienced team is perfect. It allows me to study at college part-time, work in the office and every day is a school day, I’m always learning.”

As you get the best of both worlds hand on experience working, along with the opportunity to get your qualifications you need to ensure you have a supportive manager/company and self-discipline. This is exactly what Tom found:

“Although I came into this apprenticeship at the start of the pandemic, the way Bouygues Energies & Services has handled working from home and coming back into the office has helped a lot. I have a good daily working routine and the work is manageable.” 

As a learner, you need to have a supportive company/manager. Bouygues Energies & Services have a supportive team from Management all the way down. The HR team work extremely hard to brining in the right talent who are giving the support and training needed to excel.

Emma Gould, Head of HR Bouygues Energies & Services, Contracting explains: 

“Across the company, we believe in the apprenticeship programme. We have been running it for several years with some incredible success stories. From top management all the way down, we have worked on this programme, and we are dedicated to its success.”

“Everyone is extremely helpful, and the college course Bouygues Energies & Services has put me on is also great and fits well into what I’m aiming for in my career.” Added Tom.

Upskilling

Do you want to learn a new skill? Gain a new qualification? With the apprenticeship upskill programme, you can. The upskill programme allows you to further advance your skills whilst working, it is a way to help an existing employee gain new qualifications, skills that are equivalent to a degree.

Liam Young, Project Engineer at Bouygues Energies & Service has opted to take the Upskill route who said:

“I wanted to further gain academic knowledge, specifically in building services, to assist in my job role. Having already experience studying and working at the same time I thought this would be a good opportunity to progress and accelerate my career by learning in the real world on projects and then backing this up with taught knowledge.”

Bouygues Energies & Services believe in investing in their staff and allowing them to gain new skills. 

“We have a number of avenues for our staff to gain new skills, the upskill programme is one of many that we have on offer, we encourage all our staff to take advantage of these opportunities,” said Emma Gould

Like all things good, nothing comes easy but with dedication and hard work furthering your skills is a great opportunity and it could also allow you to gain recognised accreditations which Liam explains: 

“The upskilling apprenticeship I completed was certified by an external charted institution (CIBSE), upon completion it allowed me to become a recognised member.”

If you’re interested in joining a company that invests in you, take a look at the some great opportunities Bouygues Energies & Services have to offer: https://bit.ly/3gCOR63