Share
Peterborough, UK, July 1st 2023 – With a focus on developing the pipeline of future engineering talent at Schenck Process Food and Performance Materials (FPM), Sarah Worsley, Senior HR Officer based in our Peterborough UK site, is creatively driving several new initiatives to further attract and secure “best-in-class” potential engineers to start their careers with us as apprentices.
By highlighting the apprenticeship route into engineering, Sarah is raising awareness amongst young people and their teachers, parents and carers that engineering can be an excellent career choice with great opportunities to grow professionally and personally.
Working closely with local partnerships (including Growth Works and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority), colleges, and schools to support our recruitment amongst their young and diverse talent pool, Sarah has introduced a Teacher/Tutor Engineering Experience, initially trialed at our Peterborough site.
A recent group of teachers from local education providers was welcomed to Peterborough and taken on a tour of the factory to give them insight into what it is like to work in an engineering business and the variety of experiences and roles available to their students. The idea is simple: as mentors, the teachers can share their learnings with the young people they are responsible for. Their feedback confirmed Sarah’s opinion that raising educators’ and teachers’ awareness will actively help us engage with the talent we need to sustain our business in the long term.
Another brand-new recruitment initiative Sarah has kick-started with the support of local partnerships is called Engineering Boot Camps. With the support of a training provider, the boot camps are designed to give potential new talent the chance to experience across a few days, what it is like to work in our business and specifically in engineering.
Another initiative that is proving beneficial, at the county level Sarah is also now getting actively involved with the local Employment and Skills board – further raising our profile as a local employer and allowing us to gain exposure to their recruitment campaigns.
Sarah comments on these campaigns, “Our recent experience is that when people get to see what we actually do, it inspires them to consider engineering as a career and to want to come and work at our sites to take advantage of all the training and opportunities we offer. We have been leveraging the support and opportunities that organizations like Growth Works and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority have to offer to ensure we have an engineering skills pipeline for the future.
We are seeing that our engagement initiatives are working well in terms of the quality of our new recruits, apprentice satisfaction, and employee retention.”
The next intake of new apprentices and graduates is starting in September, so we look forward to introducing, in the new year, more engineering talent into our business.
Subscribe to keep up to date with current perspectives, events, white papers and more.
