I'd just like you to stand up,
if you'd like a job in the future that pays good money?
Can you stand up if you want a job where you're making a difference,
you're doing something good or worthwhile.
Can you stand up if you want a job where you go to work and you get to have fun and laugh.
Can you stand up if you learn best when you're working and you're doing something,
you're doing something on the job, you don't learn from just sitting and looking at books.
Every single on of those things is a characteristic of doing an apprenticeship,
at whatever level, with an organisation like e-on,
and all of the other organisations that you'll hear from today.
So please bare that in mind that if you want a job where you're gonna earn a decent amount of money,
and it's going to be a good progression route or you wanna work with your friends,
or you wanna make a difference, that's what you can do by starting an apprenticeship.
I can guarantee, you'll have touched one of the things that we make, every single day, so
we lay the roads, we pretty much contribute,
along with Hanson and Tarmac,
to all of the buildings, the Olympic Park, most of the London skyline, so
we're huge, we're worldwide,
and the opportunities are absolutely endless.
Just because we have quarries, we have ready mix plants,
doesn't mean all our roles are operational.
Of course, we have mechanical apprenticeships, electrical apprenticeships, but
you might want to be an accountant. We have finance and legal professional apprenticeships.
So I started my apprenticeship journey, here at JCB in September 2019.
I'm currently doing a Manufacturing Engineering degree, at Derby University.
And so far it's been amazing.
So at the moment I'm doing 6 month placements, I've been in finance so far,
and there's a whole range of different placements we can do. There's a lot of freedom as well.
So, for example, I want to get involved in sustainability,
it's just a case of me going and chatting with the Sustainability Advisor
and arranging a placement there.
So I can just speak with my manager and say "can go and work in logistics for a month?"
And they agree that it's fine because,
when you start an apprenticeship, it's not, you go into one sector, you've got to understand the business as a whole.
And I think it's important as well, and what's great about JCB,
is they give you the flexibility to find what role is perfect for you.
This is what you can become as an apprentice, do not rule out apprenticeships, they are absolutely phenomenal.
When I was at school, I had no idea what I wanted to do, I did just follow the crowd, I went to college
and after I finished college, I was meant to go to university and I decided that
Economics, that I was gonna study, was just not for me.
I've never, ever, before this apprenticeship, done anything to do with engineering,
I was thinking in my head "no, it's a man's role, I'm not gonna go and do that."
And when I did more research into it, I realised "you know what, I can do that."
So I'm doing a Mechanical Electrical Engineering apprenticeship.
Our main, core apprenticeships are Civil Engineering,
Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Quantity Surveying,
We've got a finance team, we've got an IT team,
we've got Health & Safety.
I'm a third year Materials degree apprentice at Rolls-Royce,
I've had the opportunity to work on a lot of different systems, worked with a lot of amazing people.
The first thing they did with me and half of our intake, which was about 150 people that year,
was ship us off to Wales for 5 days to do an outward bound course.
Some of you might be, like "oh my god that's really not me" I was exactly the same,
but it really helps you develop yourself as a person.
I've never done anything practical before and now I'm a Machinist.
I've had about a year of experience working on manual and computer controlled machines.
It's about that you're getting paid, you're getting that qualification and you're getting experience as well,
and that's really key,
you know, it's something that you've got to be interested in and be passionate about.