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We are proud to have an apprenticeship programme at LiveWest, with 72 apprentices in our workforce.
We have apprentices working across LiveWest, including in our Trades teams and in a range of office based roles.
One of our apprentices is Craig, who started his career as a lifeguard working in the leisure industry and got to the level of a supervisor.
After aspiring for a more hands-on profession, Craig, had always wanted to be in the trades industry but had never quite been able to make the career change.
Craig Fox, Plumbing Apprentice for LiveWest said: “Before I was working in the leisure industry as a leisure centre supervisor and then through the summers working with the RNLI as a beach lifeguard.
“Then I wanted to join because naturally those kinds of industries are quite tough to progress. especially for the leisure centre industry it.
“You don't really get much progression with that, and I like using my hands a lot and working my hands. So naturally, I've always wanted to be in trades and this opportunity came up and I had to go for it.”
Craig is setting his sights on being a fully qualified engineer by the time he completes the apprenticeship.
Craig said: “Through the apprenticeship, I'm going down the gas route. So, by the end of it, hopefully I will be fully qualified with gas. So I want to move into the gas engineer section of the business so that would be central heating, things like that.
“If you’re thinking of applying for an apprenticeship, it sounds cliche, but just do it, just apply. Especially in the UK with such big shortages of trades you'll find work no matter what. And this is a really good separate thing to get all of that experience and help around you.
“I'm doing a career change, coming from the leisure and first aid world into a completely different area of trade, it's a career change for me. So, apprenticeships can definitely be for anyone.”
Our Executive Director of People and Communications, Paul Turner, said: “Apprenticeships are a great way for people to achieve their career ambitions and are a key way to demonstrate people’s talent and giving them a platform to do this.
“Last year we had 48 apprentices, so we have increased our apprenticeship programme by about 33 per cent in 12 months which represents significant growth for us.
“Apprenticeships encourage people to gain valuable skills while they earn a wage, and they also give people training while receiving qualifications to assist with their career journey.”
