Welcoming our new apprentices

Our Apprenticeship programme is an essential way for us to help talented young people build their careers, and for us to encourage new generations of expertise and innovation.

To date, we have taken on a number of new apprentices every year across all areas of our business. Each apprenticeship can lead to a national qualification thats respected by employers all around the world, as well as giving each participant invaluable industry experience.

At the end of August 2014, our apprentice officers Gary Warrilow (Grid), Barry Cramp and Paul Bunn (Power) and Howard Deighton (Transport) welcomed 29 new apprentices across our three business sectors at a corporate induction.

One of the new intakes is science student Charlotte Foden, who has strong family connections with the company. Charlotte told us: Im good at maths and physics, and looking forward to learning new things. My dad works for Alstom so knows that the company looks after its employees really well. My granddad also worked for Alstom. As one of the new Grid apprentices, Charlotte will be based at Stafford.

Also at Stafford will be Mike Willis, a Power apprentice who was greatly inspired by his fathers Alstom apprenticeship. My dad has now progressed to being an MD (for a different company), and said the training at Alstom is very good. Im really looking forward to meeting new people.

Many apprentices spoke of the value of the induction programme. New apprentice Mike said how it gave him the opportunity to meet existing apprentices within the company to hear what its like from their point of view, and Charlotte said how the induction helped her apprenticeship experience to be stress-free.

On 1st September, after a successful induction programme, all the participants started their apprenticeships within their businesses, either on Alstom sites or at college.

For many, it is the start to an exciting new career in the industry. And whats endlessly exciting is the myriad possibilities it promises, both individually and collectively. Will Kelly is a Transport apprentice starting at Preston, and said how he looked forward to the opportunities and avenues the apprenticeship brings which is everything that our apprenticeship programme is about.