Speedy swaps skills
5 February 2024
National Apprentice Week starts today, and while recruiting new hire industry entrants remains is a perennial challenge, another essential requirement is to ensure that job skills are passed on to the next generation.
Speedy Hire is running a pilot Mentoring and Skills Transfer Programme which pairs employees at the latter end of their careers or who are well established in their jobs, with apprentices to facilitate sharing knowledge and experience.
Those employees acting as mentors are provided with mentor training from Speedy’s People Development Business Partners as well as being offered additional incentives tracked against their apprentices’ progress.
One pairing under the initiative is septuagenarian Lifting Engineer Keith Pallett, who has worked at Speedy Hire for 32 years, and 19-year-old Jess Bloxam, a Lifting Engineer apprentice who is studying a Level 3 Lifting Equipment Technician apprenticeship with Qualitrain, who are both pictured above.
Based at Speedy’s Leicester depot, Keith shares his knowledge through practical on-site guidance on lifting equipment skills ranging from maintenance and inspection, to installation and safety.
As part of the exchange, Jess has given Keith tips and advice on using computer software, enabling him to acquire new skills, showing that each can pass on skills to the other across the age gap.
Jess said: “I am learning an incredible amount from Keith. He has so much experience that I want to tap into to support my practical learning and development as an apprentice lifting engineer.”
Keith added: “Jess instinctively knows her way around computers and she’s very comfortable using different programmes or IT applications for reporting or data input. She has come up with some ideas for more efficient working using different systems.”
The cross-generation initiative shows Speedy demonstrating its commitment as a People First business, integral to its Velocity five-year business growth strategy.
Gill Roberts, Emerging Talent Lead and ESG Business Partner at Speedy, said: “The future workforce can learn and develop from more experienced colleagues’ skills sets and wisdom which are like gold dust amidst a skills shortage.”
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