Apprentices following in Andy's successful footsteps

“Apprenticeships are a fantastic concept...the three lads are learning exactly what is relevant to the trade now."

A Rugby business has taken on three apprentices to give them “the perfect grounding” in the fast-evolving skills required by the electrician’s trade in 2024 and beyond.

Twenty years ago, Andy Wood served an apprenticeship as an electrician. He loved it and that course at Warwickshire College set him on the path to running his own successful company - Hertz Electrical Contractors Ltd - which he has done for 13 years.

Andy’s 16 employees include three apprentices who are busy training up with the required knowledge and skills, not least around the installation of solar panels and other new technology which has become a significant art of the job.

Andy successfully applied to Warwickshire County Council’s Future Apprenticeships: Salary Support Programme for support, through Warwickshire Skills Hub, and received £2,000 towards each apprenticeship.

It is a move with multiple benefits. The three recruits have embarked on constructive chosen careers and are thereby helping to grow a business which in turn contributes much to its local community. 

“Apprenticeships are a fantastic concept,” said Andy. “The three lads are learning exactly what is relevant to the trade now.  As a business we are keen to boost our grasp of technology with solar energy and energy-saving solutions. We need to focus on that and keep right up to date because it will be an important segment of our business going forward. Twenty years ago, our industry was quite basic, just sockets and lights, whereas now there are so many avenues to it like solar panels and electric vehicles.

“There are now sub-industries within our industry. Twenty per cent of our business is in things that didn’t exist 20 years ago and by taking on these lads as apprentices we can take them through from not knowing anything in our world to knowing everything they need to know.”

Andy can vouch from first-hand experience for the value of apprenticeships as an alternative to university for school and college-leavers.

“When I left school 20 years ago, apprenticeships weren’t really available because education just push you towards university, but that is not the right fit for everyone,” he said. “I didn’t find classroom learning enjoyable and just didn’t get book-based teaching so university would have been a waste of four years.

“Then I started the apprenticeship and thought, ‘this is great, we are learning about something and doing it at the same time…I learn so much this way because we are not just sat there doing theory all day.’

“Apprenticeships are brilliant opportunities for young people who for whatever reason did not really engage with school and college.”

Warwickshire Skills Hub has several schemes which offer support to SMEs looking to take on apprentices.

“Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub put me in touch with Louise Stolz from the Skills Hub,” Andy said. “Louise was great and I didn’t realise there was so much support out there. It’s been so helpful. We could probably have taken on the apprentices without the funding but off the back of that support we have created training programmes and boards within our unit so we can simulate real-life scenarios within the safety net of our building which we didn’t have before.

“It’s been brilliant. When you get support like this it makes you think, ‘yeah let’s make the most of this and turn that support into building the business to make sure it’s strong.’ We work a lot in schools and with businesses and homeowners so the stronger we are the better we can help the community. We take work two or three work placements a year from each school and a couple of those have gone on to start apprenticeships with us.”

Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economy, Cllr Martin Watson, said: “Apprenticeships are a wonderful way to teach skills which enhance both the apprentice and their employer. I am delighted that the Future Apprenticeships: Salary Support Programme has proved of such value to Andy, helping his business to grow and to support the community around it.”

* Please find out what other support is available to your business by calling Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub on 0300 060 3747 or visiting https://www.cwgrowthhub.co.uk