Amey’s highway team in Staffordshire has announced it has successfully been working with Telford College and Staffordshire County Council to welcome eight highways’ apprentices to the contract.
The eight individuals started working for Amey back in March 2021, covering a variety of highways maintenance and repair roles.
The apprenticeship programme run by Telford College provides both practical and theoretical training covering all aspects of highways maintenance and construction, from health and safety to specific highways repair works including applying safe working practise for moving, storing, lifting, and handling of resources. Using underground cable locators to identify buried water, gas or sewer lines and traffic management control. The apprenticeship programme runs for 18 months and offers a blended learning approach of both classroom and hands on experience.
Amey’s Staffordshire contract already has a diverse skilled workforce. 82% of the workforce are local to the area, having been recruited through a number of unique programmes, including the open-door scheme that focuses on helping people who face difficulties and barriers in finding work including people with disabilities, mental health issues, ex-offenders, children leaving care, school leavers, and graduates.
Richard Harris, Amey’s Transport Infrastructure Account Director for Staffordshire, said: “At Amey, we place a huge emphasis on ensuring we recruit talented people into the business and then growing that talent in our organisation. We recognise the importance of providing apprenticeships to young people to support their career and personal development, as well as helping us to create a highly skilled workforce for the future.”
It’s a well reported statistic that the highways sector is facing a skills shortage so it’s important to showcase the variety of roles that people can get involved with when they embark on a career within the highways sector.
David Williams, Cabinet member for Highways and Transport at Staffordshire County Council said: “We have a fast-growing economy here in Staffordshire and apprenticeships are playing a key role in our success. We continue to create more highly skilled, better paid jobs, so there are great opportunities for people who have the right training.
“I am really pleased to see that more and more young people are choosing the apprenticeship route particularly around our highways work and enjoying the career and earning advantages an apprenticeship opens up.”
Eight apprentices have also signed up to the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) programme, which Amey has supported for a number of years. The DofE programme is a voluntary scheme of various activities designed to support young people in their social and personal development. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is widely recognised as the world’s leading youth achievement award, transforming the lives of millions of young people from all walks of life.
Beckie Bosworth, Telford College Employer Engagement Manager said: “We are delighted to be working with Amey to train and develop their new Highways apprentices. We have been delivering the Highways qualification for over five years and our qualified tutors have a wealth of experience to share with the apprentices. We look forward to developing and building a partnership with Amey to help us to shape the future curriculum.”
Amey invests in skills, education and training, providing leading employment opportunities in local communities, with an emphasis on supporting young people into employment – whether that’s as a graduate, an apprentice or on a placement.
During the pandemic it hosted a series of virtual ‘Chat and Learns’ to provide a window and help inspire young people to take up STEM subjects and to pursue a career within highways engineering.
(Picture – Amey)
