Login / Register
Branch Locator
Get in touch
Our news
FRAZER MACBEAN REFLECTS ON LEARNING AT WORK WEEK AND KEYLINE'S INVESTMENT IN OUR APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMMES
This week our colleagues have been enjoying many additional company-wide activities as part of Learning at Work Week, an initiative created by the Campaign for Learning highlighting the importance and benefits of continual learning and development in the workplace.
It’s also a campaign that we use here at Keyline to remind colleagues of the many learning at work opportunities available to them, with special events and new knowledge share opportunities to encourage everyone to develop new skills and further their careers.
While we give increased focus to learning at work during this week, at Keyline we are heavily invested in our colleague’s career support, and nurturing and growing their talent, year-round. In fact, in 2022 we will increase the number of colleagues completing apprenticeship schemes in the business by over 600%.
Here Frazer MacBean, Keyline Apprenticeship Secondment, explains more about why learning at work is so important to Keyline as he shares the latest news on the company’s apprenticeship schemes.
PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR CURRENT ROLE HERE AT KEYLINE
I’ve worked for Keyline for 26 years during which time I’ve held various positions – from branch manager to Regional Operations Manager. Currently I’m on a secondment to the apprenticeship department to support Keyline in our recruitment drive and upskilling across the business through our apprenticeship programmes.
PART OF KEYLINE’S STRATEGY IS TO BUILD BETTER COMMUNITIES AND ENRICH LIVES, HOW DO APPRENTICESHIPS SUPPORT THIS OVERALL STRATEGY?
One of our goals within our vision is to build better communities and enrich lives and our apprenticeships wholeheartedly support this strategy. We are continually upskilling our workforce and planning for succession, giving people the knowledge, the skills, the behaviours and the confidence to be successful at work. By investing in our people and creating training and development opportunities we are helping them to move through the business ladder and helping them carve a career and a livelihood while in turn upskilling our workforce and benefiting the industry by providing skilled workers.
Similarly, we are approaching our apprenticeships through more engagement with the local community, getting in contact with the schools and higher education colleges; going and speaking to them about Keyline and what careers are available in the Travis Perkins Group. We feel that if we can get in there in the beginning, we can explain more about the breadth of work they can be involved in with us. It’s basically speaking to the younger generation and making them aware of the opportunities that are available. And by that way, we think that we can obviously build better communities and enrich lives because we're employing from within the community our branches are situated.
WHY ARE APPRENTICESHIPS IMPORTANT TO KEYLINE?
Our sector has a number of challenges and one is that we have a skills shortage. So, recruitment, especially among the younger generation, is vital to us for succession. We want to attract people into the business, as well as retain our talent.
22% of the construction industry is aged between 51 and 60 and the younger generation are not coming through at the bottom end. We are using the apprenticeship programme to attract the younger generation before it’s too late, as once the older generation starts leaving the industry the skills gap will widen further. We’re committed to creating opportunities for colleagues to move through the business, to upskill and move into management positions. If we can get our new colleagues engaged onto an apprenticeship programme they’re much more likely to stay with us. And so the second, and equal, goal is to help our current employees further their knowledge and gain qualifications, whilst adding value to our team.
WHAT ARE THE APPRENTICESHIPS AVAILABLE?
We have around 50 apprenticeships available. They start off from level two and go right up to level six, which is a degree in leadership, level seven, which is a master's in leadership, and then you can go on to eventually do a level eight, which is a doctorate.
One of the new focuses for us at the moment is to also develop our connecting schemes as well. To give people more confidence to go to the next level of their development. We’re also creating new schemes and modules for particular areas, like drivers for example, so we’re not overlooking the importance of how we develop our colleagues in the ways important to them.
WHAT ARE KEYLINE’S GOALS FOR 2022?
In 2022 we are looking for 130 employees to be enrolled onto our apprenticeship scheme. Our aim is that it will be broken down into 25% new starters and 10% of our existing colleagues on programmes.
We recommend that about 20% of our branch colleagues are on a programme at any given time, so that our branch managers can help to mentor and support people through the process.
And we’re well on our way to achieving our targets which is exciting.
We will be continuing to engage with our local communities and higher education colleges and speaking to them about the range of careers available at Keyline. We want to build the understanding that it's not just about driving a forklift and or working in a branch, but that there’s a whole range of careers available which include commercial opportunities, careers in management, operations and even finance.
I’ve worked for Keyline for 26 years during which time I’ve held various positions – from branch manager to Regional Operations Manager. Currently I’m on a secondment to the apprenticeship department to support Keyline in our recruitment drive and upskilling across the business through our apprenticeship programmes.
PART OF KEYLINE’S STRATEGY IS TO BUILD BETTER COMMUNITIES AND ENRICH LIVES, HOW DO APPRENTICESHIPS SUPPORT THIS OVERALL STRATEGY?
One of our goals within our vision is to build better communities and enrich lives and our apprenticeships wholeheartedly support this strategy. We are continually upskilling our workforce and planning for succession, giving people the knowledge, the skills, the behaviours and the confidence to be successful at work. By investing in our people and creating training and development opportunities we are helping them to move through the business ladder and helping them carve a career and a livelihood while in turn upskilling our workforce and benefiting the industry by providing skilled workers.
Similarly, we are approaching our apprenticeships through more engagement with the local community, getting in contact with the schools and higher education colleges; going and speaking to them about Keyline and what careers are available in the Travis Perkins Group. We feel that if we can get in there in the beginning, we can explain more about the breadth of work they can be involved in with us. It’s basically speaking to the younger generation and making them aware of the opportunities that are available. And by that way, we think that we can obviously build better communities and enrich lives because we're employing from within the community our branches are situated.
WHY ARE APPRENTICESHIPS IMPORTANT TO KEYLINE?
Our sector has a number of challenges and one is that we have a skills shortage. So, recruitment, especially among the younger generation, is vital to us for succession. We want to attract people into the business, as well as retain our talent.
22% of the construction industry is aged between 51 and 60 and the younger generation are not coming through at the bottom end. We are using the apprenticeship programme to attract the younger generation before it’s too late, as once the older generation starts leaving the industry the skills gap will widen further. We’re committed to creating opportunities for colleagues to move through the business, to upskill and move into management positions. If we can get our new colleagues engaged onto an apprenticeship programme they’re much more likely to stay with us. And so the second, and equal, goal is to help our current employees further their knowledge and gain qualifications, whilst adding value to our team.
WHAT ARE THE APPRENTICESHIPS AVAILABLE?
We have around 50 apprenticeships available. They start off from level two and go right up to level six, which is a degree in leadership, level seven, which is a master's in leadership, and then you can go on to eventually do a level eight, which is a doctorate.
One of the new focuses for us at the moment is to also develop our connecting schemes as well. To give people more confidence to go to the next level of their development. We’re also creating new schemes and modules for particular areas, like drivers for example, so we’re not overlooking the importance of how we develop our colleagues in the ways important to them.
WHAT ARE KEYLINE’S GOALS FOR 2022?
In 2022 we are looking for 130 employees to be enrolled onto our apprenticeship scheme. Our aim is that it will be broken down into 25% new starters and 10% of our existing colleagues on programmes.
We recommend that about 20% of our branch colleagues are on a programme at any given time, so that our branch managers can help to mentor and support people through the process.
And we’re well on our way to achieving our targets which is exciting.
We will be continuing to engage with our local communities and higher education colleges and speaking to them about the range of careers available at Keyline. We want to build the understanding that it's not just about driving a forklift and or working in a branch, but that there’s a whole range of careers available which include commercial opportunities, careers in management, operations and even finance.
We’re actively encouraging anyone to engage with us to find out more about our learning schemes. To find out more visit our website or the group’s apprenticeship sections that can be found here.