Speedy targets new talent
19 July 2022
Speedy is more than doubling the number of trainees it has in the business, creating new opportunities in areas including engineering, hire desk, sales, marketing, commercial and operations.
The company is investing in more than 100 early careers trainees across the UK to help boost its skills base and the industry’s talent pipeline.
The programme will involve passing on skills from experienced colleagues to help young people develop in their early careers. It will also harness their ideas and views to benefit the business.
Speedy is also to launch a virtual work experience programme to inspire school students to take-up careers in the hire and construction industries, which will be delivered to 300 young people nationwide.
This is part of the hirer’s initiative to ensure that apprentices, graduates and trainees on formal programmes account for 5 per cent of its total workforce. Indeed, Speedy is a member of The 5% Club, a group of employers committed to offering on-the-job skills training.
And in yet another development, Speedy has begun working with the career portal Not Going To Uni and the jobs opportunities website The Youth Group.
Dan Evans, chief operating officer at Speedy, said, “We recognise our responsibility to help the sector tackle the skills challenge and our early and late careers strategy underlines our commitment to creating opportunities for young people in the communities we work in across the UK.”
“The programme is hugely valuable to us as a business. Working with Not Going to Uni and the Youth Group provides a great opportunity for us to showcase our exciting career opportunities to a more diverse range of people than ever before, but equally is a brilliant way of us expanding our teams. It will bring new skill sets and perspectives that can strengthen our business to help us build for the future.”
Lois Derome, Speedy apprentice fuel administrator, said: “Apprenticeships are often overlooked by school leavers looking to higher education or work as their next step. But I’m really proud of my choice. I’ve found the programme very valuable - learning skills directly from senior people in the business while earning, too.
“I couldn’t recommend an apprenticeship more. Construction services is a really exciting and interesting sector to enter right now as it transforms to be more sustainable.”
Speedy currently has 80 personnel on apprenticeship schemes across the business, primarily comprising new trainees in engineering roles and existing colleagues who are using apprenticeships to up-skill and progress their careers. The firm’s apprentices cover an age range from 16 years to 40-plus.
