Phil Deare has been in business for over 12 years, rapidly expanding his carpentry contracts within numerous new build sites around the South West and have been taking on apprentices since the very beginning.
“Apprentices are a major part of the business. The labour market is struggling so taking on apprentices not only allows us to fill those gaps but also gives these young people an opportunity to develop a career.
“You have to look at the long term benefits; we train our apprentices to the high standards we want, we support them and nurture them throughout the qualifications and in turn, once they qualify, we have carpenters we know and trust to produce great work.
“Skills Group are fantastic to work with, they communicate well and send us great candidates. We like their working practices; their roll on, roll off system is great as new apprentices can start any time. Knowing the apprentices need to be in college one day a week, makes it easier for us to plan around this. It keeps their training fresh in their head and if they’re struggling with certain skills, they have that time to work on it rather than having to do this whilst they are onsite.
“Most of time, once our apprentices are qualified, we’ll take them on as fully qualified carpenters – why wouldn’t we? We know them as individuals, we know their work standards are high, they’ve grown and developed within the team, why wouldn’t we keep them?”
Kim, Operations Manager, said, “A lot of these young people are keen and hungry to succeed, they want to build a good career and earn a good wage. I’m so proud to work with these young people and watch them grow and develop. We give them opportunities and treat them with respect and they really react to that.”
Phil said, “It’s a win win for us, we’re expanding our workforce with young people who are trained well, hungry to success and driven for success. What more could you want?”