The scheme involves 12 secondary school students – male and female – attending adi Group’s Birmingham workshop for half a day each week. The two-year course, with a second cohort of 12 students joining in 2017, runs for 32 weeks for the first year followed by a further 26 weeks the following year. Running alongside their GCSE education, this course occupies 10% of the students’ overall curriculum time and is the ideal stepping stone to a full-time engineering apprenticeship.
Through the structured and accredited programme, the apprentices learn the practical, hands-on skills needed to carve a career in either mechanical or electrical engineering, so what does a typical day look like?
13:00 – Apprentices clock in at the workshop and get changed into their overalls whilst making sure they have all of their personal protective equipment on and it’s in good condition.
13:15 – Time for the team meeting where the pupils are reminded of health and safety procedures, and the dangers of working in a very busy, live workshop. Then the teachers, qualified engineers with over 30 years of experience, explain which tasks need to be completed that day. These can include welding, basic wiring, filing and reading technical drawings.
13:30 – The apprentices get to work. Whether it be using a hacksaw or a drill, these are all highly useful skills that engineers across the industry use on a daily basis. If any students encounter a problem, now is the time to ask their mentor for help. If a section of the project has errors, then those errors are carried throughout the task, so it’s vital for them to be corrected early on.
14:30 – One hour later and the first task of the day is complete. Apprentices must now clean down any equipment or machinery they have used and re-set it for the next task.
15:00 – It’s time to break, which gives the apprentices a chance to discuss what they have been learning that day. It also allows for the mechanical engineering students to interact with those on the electrical engineering segment of the pre-apprenticeship. Halfway through the course, these two groups will switch places.
15:30 – After break it’s back to work. With any problems now highlighted and subsequently corrected by the students, they can now continue with tasks whilst their mentors watch and advise on the correct methods. Simultaneously, the mentors assess the students’ individual tasks and mark them on their accuracy, quality of work and their overall attitude toward the lesson.
16:30 – The task is complete. Before the apprentices can finish, they need to clean down the tools and machinery they’ve been using before switching everything off and returning all tools and equipment ready for the morning.
17:00 – Clock out and head home.
Ultimately, the pre-apprentices come away from adi Group’s workshop with vital engineering skills that can be applied to their everyday lives. Furthermore, they have the opportunity to experience the feeling of fulfilment and pride from seeing the relevance of their work and with the knowledge that they made it themselves.
Those currently in the engineering industry have a responsibility to the younger generation to ensure they are equipped with the necessary skills to drive the sector forward.
Barry Whitehouse, mentor of the electrical engineering student team, said: “Engineering provides opportunities for those of all academic levels and backgrounds, and the beauty of the scheme is that these students get to experience a taste of it.”
Garry Howell of the mechanical engineering student team, added: “I feel very privileged to be able to pass the knowledge I’ve gained over the last 30 years on to the next generation, and offer these children the opportunity to get a head start in a highly lucrative career.”
A key aim of the pre-apprenticeship programme is to encourage other like-minded businesses to start a similar initiative. To that end, adi Group is encouraging other businesses to take advantage of the programme content and learnings on a free of charge basis.
Alan Lusty, CEO of adi Group stated: “We want more businesses to follow adi’s model by engaging with young people and encouraging them to consider engineering as an attractive potential career. With the pre-apprenticeship scheme offering a comprehensive model which other schools and employers are free to replicate, any industry can benefit from encouraging the younger generations to try something new.”
