National Apprenticeship Week 2023 (#NAW2023)

Monday, 6th February - 12th February is National Apprenticeship Week 2023 (#NAW2023) and a very exciting time of year for us at Shufflebottom. Though apprenticeships matter to us every day of the year, this specially designated week-long celebration is a chance for our business, like many businesses all over the UK, to shine a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make:

• to individuals and their skills’ development

• to businesses like ours and the future employment pipeline

• to the wider Wales and UK economy

This year – the 16th in the history of the celebration – the theme is Skills for Life.  And so, #NAW2023 is spreading the message loud and clear via a coordinated campaign and ready-made resource pack on its website www.naw.appawards.co.uk to promote the value of apprenticeships and to help individuals, schools and businesses plan to that end.

For Shufflebottom, apprenticeships have always been at the core of our business model. It makes sound economic sense that those who come to us develop the skills and knowledge are enabled towards a rewarding individual career, and that as a manufacturing business, we are equipped with future-ready skills.

At the moment we have six apprentices working with us here at Shufflebottom: from left to right in the accompanying image is Aaron Wade (joined September 2020); Patrick Tamer (joined July 2021; Ethan Cooper (joined October 2020); Finlay Allen (joined September 2021); Lewis Donaldson (joined September 2022); and Keilan Francis (joined February 2020).

They are the proof on the ground that individual apprentices benefit from apprenticeships which we think is worth sharing:

• hands-on training in the hands of our qualified experts

• newly learned skills put into practice in a real work environment

• confidence development

• upskilling at all ages

• earning money while training

• offering a foot in the door to a future employer

Importantly, Shufflebottom benefits too, in that we know our apprentices; we are training and developing them the Shufflebottom way in a specific steel-manufacturing context; and, we can be confident of the quality of the skills they are developing under our wing.

We would encourage businesses, schools and individuals to get involved with #NAW2023 and consider apprenticeships as a valuable route to work and to refer to the wonderful support that’s available online as mentioned earlier.

We hope that our very special six apprentices will finish their apprentice programme with us and stay with us for the long term.

Alex Shufflebottom, Director, Shufflebottom Ltd.