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JTL Traineeships – building the apprenticeship workforce of the future


Following recent government support, statistics from the Department of Education reveal a gradual rise in the number of Traineeship starts, and thus a growing appreciation of the benefits of a Traineeship scheme. The Traineeship scheme offered by JTL is available to those aged between 16 and 18 years old, who are unemployed and have little or no work experience and are eligible to work in England. The scheme offers an invaluable opportunity for learners to gain on-the-job work experience and workplace skills, becoming for many a crucial stepping-stone towards an eventual apprenticeship in the building services engineering sector. With recent government grant initiatives on offer to help support businesses looking to take on trainees, Traineeship programmes have never been more viable or beneficial for both learners and employers.

The recent success of JTL employer, Wing Electrical, and its group of JTL trainees winning the Tesla Powerwall Installation Award for Q2 2021 shines a light on just how advantageous a JTL Traineeship programme can be to prospective learners. In light of this, we wanted to take the opportunity to further explore the function and value of a JTL Traineeship scheme, as well as the contribution made by our JTL learners to Wing Electrical’s recent awards success.

 

What is a JTL Traineeship?

Commonly lasting anywhere between 8-16 weeks, the JTL Traineeship scheme functions as a short training course which essentially provides its learners with a taster of what it’s like to be a plumber, heating engineer, electrician or engineering maintenance operative.

Comprising a mixture of on-site work experience and JTL training, the short programme offers participants the chance to gain up to four weeks’ work experience with a local industry provider, in addition to dedicated work preparation training at a nearby JTL training centre. As part of the programme, trainees will initially take part in a series of introductory courses, designed to improve their maths and English proficiency, as well as provide them with the interpersonal skills, interview techniques, and CV writing skills needed to progress within their chosen career.

By the end of the Traineeship, learners should therefore have gained not only valuable, hands-on experience working within the construction sector, but a comprehensive knowledge of the basic skills required of an electrical or plumbing and heating apprentice.

 

The benefits of a JTL Traineeship scheme

Often referred to as a ‘pre-apprenticeship programme’, the JTL Traineeship scheme provides unemployed young people with a vital insight into the opportunities available within the building services engineering sector. Through the Traineeships’ blend of theory and application, participants will furthermore gain the workplace competency skills and confidence needed to make a competitive application to any apprenticeship programme or future job opportunity.

Given its emphasis on personal development and work preparation training, the Traineeship scheme also provides its participants with a comprehensive set of skills which can be transferred and applied to many different industries. The focus given to developing a learner’s communication skills and interview techniques especially should help them improve their interview performance and consequently improve their chances of finding work within competitive sectors.

If this sounds of interest and you want to find out more, then please check out our page on the JTL Traineeship scheme here.

 

Working with JTL employer, Wing Electrical

This year, Nottingham-based electricians, Wing Electrical, celebrated an extraordinary win when it was presented with the Tesla Powerwall Installation Award for Q2 2021. The award recognises excellent customer service and professionalism during the installation of Tesla Powerwall batteries. The win was notable for a number of reasons, not least because of the role that four JTL trainees played in Wing Electrical’s success.

Established in 1999, Wing Electrical is a highly experienced electrical contracting provider which offers a range of electrical installation and testing services throughout Nottingham and the surrounding area. Aware of the benefits of recruiting fresh talent to the company, Wing Electrical approached JTL to enquire about its apprenticeship scheme and the possibility of establishing a partnership with the newly opened JTL training centre in Nottingham. After being made aware of how advantageous a Traineeship programme can be, Wing Electrical subsequently decided it would like to take on two learners, with whom they would hopefully progress onto a fully-fledged apprenticeship.

Following this, JTL employability trainer, Michelle Cree, invited five learners local to the Nottingham area to interview at the company. Four of the Traineeship candidates interviewed – Marley O’Connor, Neveah Walter-Clarke, Chloe Radford and Luis Jacklin – completely outperformed all preconceived expectations, leading Wing Electrical to trial all four on a sequence of two-week work experience stints over the course of their eight-week Traineeship scheme.

Although the process of inducting all four learners into the traineeship scheme meant staggering the work experience period, this hybrid learning structure consequently enabled all four learners to gain great, hands-on experience in a variety of domestic and commercial scenarios. As part of the Traineeship programme, all four learners also benefitted from passing their Electrotechnical Certification Scheme (ECS) test and gaining priceless employability skills.

In a move which demonstrates the long-term advantages of undertaking a Traineeship, Wing Electrical decided to progress two of its learners, Marley O’Connor and Chloe Radford, as full-time apprentices within the company, thus enabling them to further develop the skills that they have already gained from their Traineeship programme.

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