With so much uncertainty surrounding us at the moment as we find ourselves in the middle of a global pandemic, I was elated to be given the green light from David Barber, our Managing Director, to work on a project that would bring great opportunity to young aspiring plumbers within the communities of Ideal Standard.
Ideal Standard, in partnership with the BMA and CIPHE, will shortly be utilising a proportion of our Apprenticeship Levy fund, which is in place to pay for apprenticeship training and upskilling of our own workforce. This will be gifted to small businesses within the industry, providing them with the financial support to sponsor their own accredited Plumbing Apprenticeships.
Recent statistics tell us that 1 in 10 young people have recently lost their job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In conjunction with the government incentives to hire apprentices, this approach gives SME’s the support to provide the educational requirements of the scheme and create roles that they may have otherwise not been in a position to consider.
In the first instance, there will be the scope to provide three aspiring tradesmen with fully-funded qualifications. The training will be carried out by some of the top training academies in the UK, carefully selected by the CIPHE.
This project is the first of its nature within the industry. As a market leader, I think it’s a really exciting opportunity to lead the way on investing in young talent as they begin their career in the Plumbing and Heating industry. I do hope that other organisations will see the benefit of investing some of their levy fund in this manner and will also want to get involved in supporting the journey of what will be our future talent.
This initiative comes at an important time when there is evidently a skills shortage within the industry. This approach enables Ideal Standard to connect with our wider supply chain in a way that we have never done previously. This will help strengthen our position within the RMI market, ensuring that the future installers of our products have had the opportunity to train with our products and draw on the expertise of the team here at Ideal Standard, whether that be through product training or career mentorship.
Although Ideal Standard will not be the direct employer of the apprentices we are excited to form strong relationships with them and play an instrumental part in supporting their exciting journey ahead.