As a leading employer in the utility industry, it is essential that we offer attractive training and professional development opportunities to meet the diverse needs of our workforce. From award-winning apprenticeships to career support for colleagues ambitious to progress, our multi-faceted learning pathways allow us to build a business for the future which is equipped to adapt within a constantly evolving sector.
We are proud of our apprenticeships and the pipeline of talent they have produced. With more than 70 apprentices recruited in business administration, finance, multi-utility, warehousing and other key roles, they have been critical to our success.
By designing clear career pathways and supporting our apprentices to learn a variety of skills across different areas of the business, we are helping to develop a generation of young professionals trained in innovative areas of technology and modern construction processes.
Take our business administration apprentice Georgia, who works in our street lighting team. In this environment she is able to acquire the practical office experience that will lead to an NVQ qualification, and at the same time she is gaining valuable insight into a highly technical area, learning directly from more experienced colleagues.
Georgia is loving her apprenticeship and says it has allowed her to gain experience “you could only obtain in the workplace”.
She is enjoying learning more about streetlighting and already has her eye on progression. “I would love to become a manager in a career I am passionate and knowledgeable about. Right now, I am enjoying the street lighting path and learning CAD, and would like to progress in these.”
Last year, apprentice Leo joined the estimating department and is thoroughly enjoying his experience. Leo is also focused on progression and says his business administration apprenticeship “has opened up different career options that I didn’t even realise would be possible to achieve due to the variety of topics [it] covers and the number of transferrable skills I learn.” He adds, “hopefully one day I’ll have the title ‘Lead Estimator’ next to my name!”
On the other side of this story is lead estimator Eleanor who nearly ten years ago was in Leo’s position and has progressed to become one of our most valuable assets. Recently awarded a promotion to lead business development in one of our key growth regions, Eleanor’s achievement shows the level of support apprentices will receive at Aptus if they have the right attributes, passion and commitment to learn and progress.
Apprenticeships aren’t the only route to a rewarding career with Aptus. We have taken on trainees in project management, utility network design, cable jointing, human resources, and quantity surveying, as well as warehouse operatives, water technicians, and more.
Along with signing up to The 5% Club, the launch of Aptus Academy in 2022 formalised our commitment to supporting our colleagues on different learning pathways. Among these is Liam Pearson who started out as a water tester in 2014 before training as a water design engineer and progressing to design team leader.
His training has continued throughout his career with Aptus and after completing an HNC in Civil Engineering, Liam graduated from Aptus Academy and has recently been rewarded for his commitment with a further promotion to regional design manager. You can read more about Liam’s career here.
T Levels are one of the recent training standards to emerge and we embraced this new learning opportunity by offering industry placements to two engineering students from Bolton College.
These have been a great success, and we were delighted to offer Tom Daly a position within our CAD department when he has completed his T Level in Mechanical Engineering – congratulations Tom!
One of our mottos as an employer is to be inclusive and rewarding, and all our colleagues can be assured that they will be offered support in their professional development at every stage of their career.
A case in point is our project development manager John Goulding, who will soon achieve his 10-years’ service with Aptus. John has advanced through roles as a multi-utility supervisor into project management, and onto to a senior role in which he oversees the delivery of an extensive portfolio of contracts for our clients in the North West.
John’s tremendous commitment and ambition have been continually recognised and rewarded by Aptus and he recently embarked on an ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management course. This forms part of training Aptus has been rolling out to senior managers to ensure our team are equipped to support the future business growth.
John’s son Ethan is another outstanding example of our successful apprenticeship recruitment programme. Ethan qualified as a multi-utility operative with distinction in 2021 and is keen to follow in his dad’s footsteps. With the feedback we have received on Ethan so far, he is clearly one to watch!
If you are interested in exploring careers with Aptus, visit https://aptusutilities.co.uk/careers.
Explore Aptus Academy for more on our apprenticeships and training opportunities!
