Celebrating Our Apprentices
Apprentices are at the heart of everything we do at CPW. Established more than twenty years ago, our apprenticeship programme is committed to helping young people confidently enter the engineering industry and achieve their career goals through hands-on training and ongoing professional development.
To celebrate last year’s cohort who are now one year into their journey, we have created a video where our apprentices chat through their experience of the scheme and explain why they chose CPW to kickstart their careers.
More than 15% of our workforce is currently part of the apprenticeship scheme and, in the last 10 years alone, we have brought more than 150 new engineers into the industry. We’re proud that three current Directors began their careers at CPW as trainees, and that we’ve welcomed more female apprentices and people from minority backgrounds than ever before.
Commenting on how they’ve found the apprentice scheme so far, trainee Charley Steeples says that knowing he is making a difference is what he finds most fulfilling. He said: “I thought that CPW had a positive outlook on where the industry was going, they promote sustainability and I wanted to have a positive impact on people's lives.”
In the video, graduate from the apprentice scheme, Niamh Luck, tells us about how some apprentices have successfully worked their way up the business and now inspire the trainees to show what they can one day achieve.
Niamh said: “On our team there's a lot of inspirational engineers who started as trainees and are now Directors and Associates, so there is a really clear progression path which I am now on too.”
Director Wayne Eustace oversees the apprenticeship programme and said: “Our investment in the next generation of engineers demonstrates our commitment to supporting young people in achieving their career aspirations and gives them a strong start in their professional life.
“Apprenticeships allow people to kickstart their career earlier, giving trainees experiences they wouldn’t have otherwise gained and allowing people to hit career milestones they are proud of early on.
“CPW is leading the way in supporting and nurturing the talent of future engineers. Through our various programmes of work experience, apprenticeships, and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions, we are witnessing first-hand the positive impact we can have on young people as they start their careers while crucially bridging the skills gap within the construction sector.”
We are dedicated to developing young people and see it as our inherent responsibility to create professionals that will go on to shape the country’s engineering future. With a culture based on collaboration and sharing knowledge, we strive to not only offer an environment that nurtures growth but offers opportunity wherever possible. As such, we fund higher education qualifications including bachelor’s and master’s degrees to enable our staff to gain invaluable knowledge, closely supporting them throughout the process.
Want to know more about working at CPW? Visit our apprenticeships page.