Further strengthening our role in the sector in developing young engineers, Windsor has a long-standing commitment to recruiting local talent and up-skilling through training and apprenticeships. It’s crucial that we as a business encourage the uptake of vital trades, such as engineering, and as such we’re pleased to have offered a number of apprentices’ roles across the country out of the 21 being advertised, offering great opportunity and a chance to progress successful careers from a young age.
Managing Director Jonathan Burton says; “Our aim is to have a positive impact within our communities in every aspect of what we do. That includes how we recruit into our business which is now 105 engineers strong, 12% of which are currently on a training apprenticeship and our plan is to grow that to 20% in 2022.”
“Apprenticeship schemes are a productive and effective way to grow and develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workplace and we’re delighted to be announcing a drive to place a further 21 roles this year, delivering on our commitments to provide opportunities to young people nationwide.”
The three-year apprenticeships are run in partnership with F-TEC, a dedicated training facility that offers an extensive range of forklift engineering programmes and support our apprentices throughout their training; teaching new skills, mentoring and helping them forge fulfilling careers.
Karl Baum of F-TEC says, “Our partnership with Windsor Materials Handling has helped a number of next-generation engineers get the training they require through the apprenticeship scheme. Windsor Materials Handling have sourced many of their own engineers from the apprentices they have taken on, which is a testament to the quality of the candidates upon completion of their apprenticeship. We look forward to the next intake this year and are proud to be working with Windsor Materials Handling to help close the skills gap faced by our industry.”
As a business, it’s important for us to emphasise the real-life career opportunities that apprenticeships hold. We have members of the service and maintenance team who joined Windsor with a real vision to develop a career in engineering and were attracted by the potential to earn developing an appliable skillset. Whilst initially the wages seem low compared to jobs that don’t require experience nor provide training to learn a trade, they always had mind the earning potential you have when you qualify and Windsor support that ambition throughout.
One of our longest standing employees, Ian Stone, has almost 40 years of service as an engineer at Windsor and remains on his tools today.
Ian Stone says “Innovations within the industry have gradually transformed what it means to be an engineer, from a trade that was once heavily mechanical to one today that is much more technical and definitely varied. Since starting as apprentice in 1984 the job has continually evolved keeping the role interesting and fresh, particularly in recent years with the shift to electric equipment which utilises the same technology as the electric cars we see on the roads today.”
“The tools of our trade maybe materials handling equipment, but it’s the way we approach issues, implementing the right product mix for the right application, and the work we do with specifiers, that is key to our success. Working with major brands within industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceutical, timber and construction, we are an integral part of the manufacturing and distribution process so ensuring that our customers operations are running without problems is vital to their success to deliver.”
“At Windsor, we maintain a philosophy of continual investment in people to help ensure our strong reputation for personal customer support is maintained. We always seek to develop and nurture long term and valued relationships to enable our customers to succeed.”
Windsor Materials Handling are delighted to continue their investment into the industry through the development of young talent and are pleased to announce that they are looking to recruit a further 14 engineering apprentices across our national branch network to add to the 25 already on its team.
For more information or to apply, please visit our careers page.
