The JIB hosted another successful industry forum ‘Apprenticeships – Routes into the Electrotechnical Sector, the Opportunities & Challenges’ on Wednesday 25th October at London’s Goldsmiths’ Centre.
JIB’s Chief Executive Jay Parmar chaired the event, facilitating lively discussion between speakers and delegates.
Ruth Devine, Chair of The Electrotechnical and Skills Partnership (TESP), was first on the bill, sharing valuable insights and data from the latest Labour Market Intelligence report. She stressed the need for employers, providers and industry organisations to work together to promote careers in the sector.
Chris Claydon, CEO at JTL, then gave his perspective on the challenges of delivering government funded training – including the complex funding, targets and requirements around retention and completion. He spoke of the reasons why employers should engage with providers to shape the learner journey and to push for government recognition of funding issues.
Up next was Chris Oldham, Senior Policy & Programme Manager, City of London Corporation, who talked about the importance of bringing in apprentices and upskilling the workforce. He went on to outline how the ‘Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce’ aims to ensure that London’s built environment sector is globally competitive and sustainable.
Sam Walker, Estimating & Design Engineer at Darke & Taylor, rounded off the presentations, with his experience of recruiting, training and retaining apprentices. He shared his belief that investing in apprenticeships is key to overcoming skills shortages in the sector. He also introduced apprentice Ollie Williams, who gave his insights into overcoming barriers to the apprenticeship route.
The event concluded with a productive panel discussion between speakers and delegates, leading to conversations continuing over a networking lunch.
A survey taken after the event provided extremely positive feedback, with almost 90% of delegates surveyed rating the day as ‘Excellent’, and 100% saying the event was positive and met their expectations.
Andy Downing, Group Operations Director at Playfords, a JIB member, praised the event afterwards, saying: “This was a great event with some excellent interaction. The guest speakers were very informative and gave us some great insights into the challenges our industry faces. Some key focus items were noted regarding the challenge currently being encountered regarding apprenticeship training availability and the inevitable need for the providers to approach the employers within each region to work collaboratively and much closer together.”
The event also gave non-members a chance to see some of the benefits of a JIB membership. Ricky Cybuch, Operations Director at Wells Managed Solutions, added: “I would like to express our gratitude to JIB for putting together such an informative and helpful event. We learned a great deal from the discussions and presentations, and it has further piqued our interest in exploring apprenticeship opportunities.”
Jay Parmar commented: “It was a pleasure to welcome our guests to the JIB’s latest Forum, which proved to be extremely educational on some very important issues. Apprentices represent the future of the electrotechnical industry and we at the JIB, along with industry partners, want to ensure that the appropriate pathways are in place to deliver a competent and professional workforce for this sector. I would like to thank all of our speakers for giving their perspective on key issues and thank you to everybody who attended. I hope you found it a very useful day.”
This event was one of a series of industry forums, launched to offer practical support to JIB members and engage with the wider industry. This forms part of our Members’ Toolkit designed to provide guidance and support for business challenges and to promote the advantages of JIB membership.
