We are celebrating our apprentices at PSS Installations during National Apprenticeship Week!
Apprenticeships at Project Skills Solutions
We get a great sense of achievement in supporting our apprentices through their journeys to becoming qualified electricians. To give a young, aspiring engineer the opportunity to learn from our skilled electricians is something we have always done as a company. With new apprentices joining the business at the beginning of 2024, we continue to grow our workforce and introduce apprentices to our teams. It’s all about providing opportunities, giving apprentices a great chance to learn and develop, and then preparing them for their future careers. National Apprenticeship Week raises awareness of apprenticeships for both prospective candidates and employees of the benefits of completing or hiring an apprentice.
Secondly, training an apprentice means we can mould their skills to suit our needs, whilst at the same time being able to support their interests and strengths. The strong relationship that is built during the apprenticeship and the time we have invested in their training, we hope leads to them choosing to stay with us. We then have a skilled electrician that we helped to create! At PSS Installations we have three electricians who have completed their apprenticeships with us and chosen to stay and further their career.
What are electrical apprenticeships like?
The apprenticeship takes approximately 4 years. The journey of an apprentice to a qualified electrician usually looks like this:
- One day a week during term time, you will be at college learning the essential skills for doing the job.
- The fourth year is your portfolio stage. This is where you will collect evidence of your learning put into practice on site in the form of pictures etc.
- Your tutor will do at least two formal visits to you on site during your portfolio stage and will pick what skills they want you to demonstrate. For example, they may ask you to complete a fault find and erect metal tray work for their two visits.
As you progress further through your apprenticeship, you will get more involved in completing the site jobs. The senior electrician that you are paired with will assess when you are ready to complete work under supervision, and they will always check that what you have done is correct and safe.
This is what Christine had to say about apprenticeships with Project Skills Solutions:
“I would highly recommend taking on apprentices but ensure that you treat them fairly and offer them all the support they require if you want them to become an asset to your team and wish to keep them at the end of their apprenticeship. We offer full-time, permanent employment from the moment they start with us, not just for the duration of their apprenticeship.
As a Qualified Electrical Supervisor, one of my responsibilities is to liaise with the college to get feedback on how the apprentices are doing and how we can support them to develop their skills. I will then support the apprentices directly by either coming out to support on site or use our in-house ‘test rig’ to practice specific processes.”
Celebrating Our Apprentices for National Apprentice Week
So for National Apprenticeship Week 2024, we would like to say keep up the good work and thank you for being such valuable members of our team!