Value of apprenticeships

13 September 2023

The recent story on the blog about One Stop Hire’s new Early Careers Academy highlighted the importance of attracting young entrants into the industry.

And Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty’s Group Chief Executive expressed similar sentiments when interviewed by the Asian weekly newspaper Eastern Eye on workplace diversity and inclusion. He also founded the 5% Club ten years ago, which encourages businesses of all sizes to employ five per cent of their workforce as apprentices, graduates or sponsored students.

He said that apprenticeships offer people from all walks of life a great opportunity to learn and earn, and a chance to get to the top, adding that, rather than go to university and end up thousands of pounds in debt, an apprenticeship is a relatively clean slate, with few teenagers having significant debts from their school days. 

Leo Quinn also advocated the use of reverse mentors – when someone young and relatively inexperienced in the business spends time with someone who is far more senior – which means they can view the world from a different perspective.

He said that people can rise from humble origins and make it to the top, but they need someone to open that first door for them, and it could be through an apprenticeship.

“The important thing is to get the job, and I think apprenticeships are far more important today than they’ve ever been,” he said.

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