October 2020 – No business can survive without good talent – and that means that you have to recruit or train that talent. In Unipart Rail, we like to recruit the best and promote from within – so our apprentice programme is key to our success.
With 38 apprentices in the business, we have them in positions across a range of departments including Engineering, Higher Engineering, Procurement, Business Administration, Human Resources, Warehousing, Team Leader, Mentoring, Lean Manufacturing, Marketing and Chartered Management.
During 2020 we have had several of the apprentices completing their courses, including:
CIPS Level 4 – Stephen Jackson and Sarah Morris have both successfully completed their CIPS Level 4 and are eager to progress onto the Levels 5 and 6 once the Standard has been approved.
Nathan Cooper and Lewis Palin have both successfully completed their four-year Engineering Advanced Apprenticeship at Crewe Service Centre, completing BTEC ONC, PEO NVQ2 and NVQ3 along with periods of rotation around all departments within Crewe Service Centre – they are both progressing onto their Higher Engineering Apprenticeship.
Sam Foster has completed a four-year Chartered Management Degree in conjunction with Manchester Met University. Sam has already completed his Engineering Advanced Apprenticeship and progressed into a Sales Development Role – Sam successfully achieved a BA(Hons) in Business Management (2:1) with Chartered Management Status.
Ben Slack has completed his Embedded Electronic Systems Engineering Degree Apprenticeship, in conjunction with Staffordshire University. He successfully gained a Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
Michael Bent has also completed the Senior Leaders Masters Degree Apprenticeship in conjunction with York St John University. This is a Level 7 masters degree.
Finally, Jack Thorpe at Samuel James Engineering is waiting on his completion certificate for Level 3 Engineering Panel Wireman apprenticeship.
We are incredibly proud of the achievements of all our apprentices and we know that many of them will progress into management roles – many of the Cell Management team at Crewe have been promoted into Planner/Management roles from our Engineering Apprenticeship Scheme.
We fully support Apprenticeships and will continue to develop our business with the best talent available to us.