What is National Apprenticeship Week (NAW)? A week-long celebration taking place on 5th - 11th February 2024 that brings together businesses and apprentices across the country to shine a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make to individuals, businesses and the wider economy. This year marks the 17th annual celebration of apprenticeships and the theme for 2024 is ‘Skills for life’.
Kerridge Commercial Systems is proud to support this week of awareness as we recognise their hard-working apprentices across the UK business. KCS has been lucky to witness the benefits first-hand having had multiple success stories with both new and existing members of staff and continue to invest in apprentices in-line with its pledge to the BMF Apprenticeship Pledge.
“In a bid to take control of the skills gap in the building materials industry and to drive the utilisation of Levy Funds across the building materials sector, the Builders Merchants Federation has launched the BMF Apprenticeship Pledge with the stated aim to achieve 15,000 apprentices across the BMF membership by 2030." - Builders Merchants Federation (BMF)
Apprenticeships often have a misconception of only being entry-level. However, KCS currently employ 20 apprentices that are in a different range of roles and levels, including Leadership, R&D, HR, Support, Finance, Sales & Marketing. And, have a commitment to increase this number within the next 10 years.
Honing on the theme of ‘Skills for life’, we recently spoke with several KCS employees who are currently on their apprenticeship journey to discuss how this career path has equipped themselves with future-ready skills.
In addition, we spoke with Becky Clark, Global Talent Development Partner at Kerridge Commercial Systems, whose role focuses on onboarding the apprentices in the business and seeking opportunities to upskill existing members of staff.
"The KCS Global Talent Development team are committed to ensuring that all of our staff have the correct knowledge and skills in order to excel in the work they do, whether that be right now or in the future for any career succession planning. One of the KCS business goals is to grow our own talent and apprenticeships are perfect to help us achieve this. We work with leading learning providers to facilitate our apprenticeships; from entry-level to degree-level, as well as covering all departments across the business." - Becky Clark, Global Talent Development Partner @ Kerridge Commercial Systems