Cable and Wireless
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Cable & Wireless Worldwide has seen firsthand the benefits that Apprenticeships can bring to a business. The company has developed a 30-month programme in which apprentices work towards an Advanced Apprenticeship in Telecommunications Engineering.
Cable & Wireless started the scheme last year, and currently has 24 apprentices in various departments around the country. Vacancies for this year’s programme have been advertised on Apprenticeship vacancies.
Cable & Wireless’ Apprenticeship Programme Manager, Antony Bacon, has seen the impact of the system on their recruitment, he comments: “Attracting the right people for an Apprenticeship can be difficult. Apprenticeship vacancies helped us reach a
wider audience. We had many more candidates than last year and I’m sure Apprenticeship vacancies had a part to play.”
Cable & Wireless currently has two groups of apprentices from ’08 and ’09 intakes. In order to give apprentices the all-round experience and skills required to become engineers, the Apprenticeship includes six weeks of teaching at Cable & Wireless’ training centre, a series of secondments and work experience around the business - and finally extensive on the job training, working with experienced engineers. Cable & Wireless’ Advanced apprentices work towards an NVQ Level 3 and a BTEC National Certificate in Telecommunications Technologies which are delivered in partnership with Warwickshire College.
Recruitment to Cable & Wireless’ Apprenticeship
In the first year of its Apprenticeship programme, Cable & Wireless conducted a series of attraction activities with schools and colleges, such as road-shows and presentations. The aim was to raise the profile of Apprenticeships, and introduce Cable & Wireless’ own Apprenticeship programme. However, Cable & Wireless wanted to continue to expand on the number of applications. The company was then approached by the National Apprenticeship Service and informed about the Apprenticeship vacancies system, and decided to use this for the second year of recruitment for its programme.
This made a significant difference to the levels of interest in their vacancies: “Last year we had 153 applicants across all the areas that we were looking into. That was going from London all the way up to Manchester and Leeds. This year we didn’t really change our recruitment and our attraction approach, save for the fact that we started much earlier and included Apprenticeship vacancies. This year we had almost 1000 applicants” says Antony Bacon.
The main attraction of Apprenticeship vacancies for Cable & Wireless is the fact that it reaches candidates from a wide geographical spread. They wanted to draw candidates from a range of areas across the country, whilst making sure that candidates could realistically reach the specified workplace. Cable & Wireless therefore advertised 15 vacancies on Apprenticeship vacancies for year two of its Apprenticeship programme.
Using Apprenticeship vacancies
Cable & Wireless was already working with Warwickshire College, to help deliver the qualifications for the Apprenticeship. As its learning provider, the College also uploaded the vacancies onto Apprenticeship vacancies on its behalf. Warwickshire College supplied Cable & Wireless with the vacancy template for the system so that they could match their job description to the fields on Apprenticeship vacancies.
The Apprenticeship Programme Manager for Cable & Wireless coordinates the programme internally and liaises with the
various departments to help them identify a need for an apprentice. Although the roles are fairly similar, each department produced a ‘role profile’ and list of Apprenticeship requirements to ensure that the right individual for that particular position was recruited. Warwickshire College also helped check the vacancy adverts to ensure they met the requirements to go on Apprenticeship vacancies.
Apprenticeship vacancies allows for integration with Cable & Wireless’ own HR and recruitment processes. Candidates who would like to apply for a position clickon a link in the vacancy advert which then takes them directly to an application form on Cable & Wireless’ own website. All the applications and further selection procedures are therefore managed by their own recruitment department, in line with their organisational procedures.
Chris Robson, Employment Services Contracts Manager at Warwickshire College, believes that this integration with the employer’s own HR system is vital for the larger employer. She says “the service has to fit in with a large company system. The fact that it links through to their website is straightforward and simple. They don’t have to do anything different other than give us the information in a particular format and this makes it much more straightforward for them.”
The benefits of Apprenticeship vacancies
Cable & Wireless believe that Apprenticeship vacancies has had a very positive impact on recruitment – not only has it significantly increased the number of applications received, it has also supplied good quality candidates. The Apprenticeship programme is now going from strength to strength; Antony Bacon feels that “The first year apprentices were amazing and they continue to do extremely well, having a positive effect on both productivity and culture. We have no doubt the new intake will continue to prove the many benefits of Apprenticeships.”
Warwickshire College believes the higher response rate that Cable & Wireless has seen is because Apprenticeship vacancies draws on a wider pool of candidates. Chris Robson explains “you don’t only get those who are knowledgeable enough or have the information to go directly to your particular site. It does open up and give opportunities to people who are just thinking about Apprenticeships; it puts Cable & Wireless in front of many more people.”
Cable & Wireless have seen a rapid expansion of its Apprenticeship programme in the first two years, as other parts of the organisation have realised the benefits of Apprenticeships and have wanted to become involved. This success has led them to discuss expanding Apprenticeships to other sections of the business. Apprenticeship vacancies has contributed to this, by increasing interest and attracting good candidates for the positions.
(Also available as a PDF - 506kb)
Last Updated: 08/02/2012