In order to deliver the best solutions to its customers, the h&v industry needs to ensure its workforce has the right skills. Apprenticeships are the obvious solution, says Adrian Walker.


Early in February the Government announced that it was taking measures to encourage more companies to take on more apprentices, with an increase in budgets for this purpose to over £1.4 bn for 2011-12.

A recent survey has also shown that 80 per cent of the companies that employ apprentices say that they make the workplace productive. And 90% of employers are said to believe that apprentices hold the key to the future success of their business over the next two years.

Certainly in the H&V industry there are very clear benefits to investing in apprentices yet there are many companies that are failing to take advantage of these opportunities. Perhaps they are disinclined to make the investment, or maybe they feel the public purse should foot the bill - and financial support is certainly available for certain categories of apprenticeship.

However, in our experience apprentices in our UK manufacturing centres and in our technical support teams are a worthwhile investment in their own right, irrespective of whether government funding is available. And there are several reasons for this.

From our point of view, one of the most important factors is ensuring that our workforce has the right skill sets. Many of our boilers and pressure vessels are bespoke, requiring a workforce with a range of particular hands-on skills that are often not found elsewhere. For example, if we were to employ a fully qualified welder who has acquired those skills and qualifications by working with a jig, they may not have the experience of working from drawings that we require. And there are many other skills required for bespoke designs that won't be picked up in a mass production environment, so it may be six to 12 months before that person adds real value to the company.

Similarly, on the technical support side of the business we need staff who not only understand the products, but also appreciate how they integrate with other products and controls to create a fully operational system. That appreciation is what enables them to go to site and solve problems for our customers - and we don't believe those are skills that we can buy in - they need to be home-grown. Plus, home-grown staff are immersed in the culture of the business. When one of our staff is on site they are representing Hoval and we want to be sure they represent us in the right way.

By employing apprentices, we can ensure that we build a fully rounded, multi-skilled workforce that meets our needs and those of our customers. This also means that in the future, when skills shortages become a problem for the industry (and they will) we have the skills we need.

Of course, this highlights the concern that many companies have about employing apprentices - namely that they will invest heavily in training and then those skilled staff will be wooed away. Clearly, this is a concern, but the answer isn't to avoid training people yourself, otherwise you become the one that is poaching skills that other companies have paid for.

No, the answer is to ensure that apprentices are given the working conditions and opportunities for advancement that make them want to stay. Perhaps that's why we have many staff who joined us as apprentices between 25 and 50 years ago.
Crucially, those staff are also the key to training the new apprentices that come in, thus resolving potential succession problems in the future.

So I would urge all companies in our industry to embrace apprenticeship schemes and make an investment in their own future, as well as that of our industry. I can promise that when it's done properly, an apprenticeship scheme will prove to be commercially valuable as well as enormously satisfying.