Renishaw's incredible 266 career opportunities for 2024!
At the start of National Apprenticeship Week Raikes talks to engineering giant Renishaw about apprenticeships, why they are so important, and about the 260-plus opportunities it laid on for 2024.
Good afternoon,
Another very warm welcome - this time to the second edition of The Raikes Journal, a community interest company and a digital magazine supporting Gloucestershire’s businesses, its charities and vital education and training sectors.
And a huge thank you once again for subscribing. We will continue to shamelessly mention how vital subscriptions are for us to continue to grow and do what we do. So please do spread the word to those not yet on board - especially those who would consider paying to become a member!
You can read our About page and our story ‘Raikes: The rebirth of community journalism for Gloucestershire’ to find out how this operation is all part of our drive to put back in place in the county some real community journalism, so we’ll park that there for the moment.
We are not yet up to full speed or ready to unveil Raikes’ Founding Partners who have helped make this possible, but we can’t let today pass without marking the start of National Apprenticeship Week 2024 - which has inspired today’s main story below.
Before that, we continue our weekly introductions to a county charity, plus we’ve decided to unlock another of our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire stories for you – usually paywalled to all but paying members. And don't forget the diary dates at the foot of the edition either!
Oh, group subscriptions (two or more signing up at once) can get a 20 per cent discount here…
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable!
Why today’s main story?
As we mentioned in our first edition, Raikes was founded during the UK's Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to help champion and support Gloucestershire's beleaguered businesses, third sector and vital education and training sectors. Its team has been reporting on these, and the county, for longer than any other reporter left standing.
Today we home in on education and training, and in particular apprenticeships. Why? Because this is National Apprenticeship Week 2024. Here at Raikes we see apprenticeships as key to UK plc’s future, not just a route to work, and we hope to see them continue to develop and be invested in by Government.
Today’s main article is a focus on a long-standing champion of apprenticeships, as well as graduate pathways, career development generally, innovation and engineering par excellence, the mighty Wotton-under-Edge-based Renishaw. We also look at some national stats on apprenticeships too.
Just before Christmas 2023 it announced it was in the market for 64 more apprentices in varying roles across its business in 2024 and had also opened its door to 108 graduates, 64 industrial and 30 summer placements.
That’s 266 opportunities!
Our chosen charity: Newent and District Rotary Club
🤝 Our main piece (below) champions the mighty Renishaw, one of the biggest businesses in Gloucestershire, but small can be beautiful too. We picked this up from a post by the event lead at the charity The Nelson Trust, the legend that is Andy Jarrett. This is about an appeal from Newent and District Rotary Club, which is inviting new members. Like all the Rotary Clubs it’s part of a worldwide network and supports the mighty charity The Rotary Foundation. Newent is also dedicated to supporting good causes on its north Gloucestershire patch, as well as cultivating friendships and community. Also one of Raikes’s key tenets! Meetings are every Tuesday, 7.30am to 8.30am at Manna House, Newent.
Your Raikes’ briefing
👷♀️👷🏿♂️ County firm Elijah Willow Construction is helping Gloucestershire College promote this week's National Apprenticeship Week. Director Dan Ponting's firm has a long-standing relationship with the college’s apprenticeship team and offers its best candidates opportunities to begin careers. Elijah Willow is not alone. The college has relationships with more than 1,300 employers, engages 700 apprentices a year and is currently supporting 1,400 on their journey. We think that’s incredible! It’s due to stage an apprenticeships open evening in the diary for Tuesday 6 March. And before that there’s a jobs fair on Thursday 7 March.
🦈 Few can resist good food, so here’s a story to get you salivating - especially if you also get excited about feel-good business news. This is a story from our Top 100 vault, usually locked to all but our paid-for subscribers, but which we are giving occasional glimpses in the hope everyone will realise what you are missing by not joining them. We’re talking about Severn & Wye Smokery, the purveyor of fine foods and very nice dining indeed. Turnover has just passed £67 million. You can read it here.
🏗️ Mention of ‘local plans’ and ‘strategy documents’ usually puts people to sleep. But if you are interested in how Gloucestershire will be shaped and the legacy this generation will leave then a few minutes considering the vision and objectives of the joint local authority team from Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury working on the next plan could be time well spent? There are online workshops on Monday February 5 from 12.30pm to 1,30pm, on Wednesday 7 February from 6pm to 7pm, and in-person sessions in regents Arcade, Cheltenham, on Tuesday February 6 from 10am to 3pm and on Saturday February 10 from 10am to 3pm and Tewkesbury Town Hall on February 8 from 2.30pm to 7pm.
⛳️ Of course, apprenticeships (this week’s big theme) are not the only training and development afoot in Gloucestershire. One eye-catching Gloucestershire business making a name for itself as a top venue teamed up with a firm that excels in the development of our already experienced business leaders. We are talking about the gathering at Brickhampton Court Gold Complex staged by QuoLux. Forty-plus business leaders heard from Professor Steve Kempster, Brickhampton’s own Damian Brooks and QuoLux’s Dr Stewart Barnes. The latter introduced delegates to a new business model based on ‘good dividends’ - about creating business value plus positive social impact in communities and wider society through purpose-led leadership.
Renishaw engineers incredible 266 career opportunities for 2024 - and what’s left available too!
By Andrew Merrell
‘Apprentices are something we take real pride in. It is something Renishaw has always done. It is part of our culture, but it is also part of our future,” said Julia Russell, senior early careers resourcing and programme advisor at Renishaw.
Just before Christmas the firm announced 64 apprenticeships were on offer for 2024 in varying roles across its business, this came after it had also opened its door to 108 graduates, 64 industrial and 30 summer placements.
Any left, we hear you ask? More on this below.
“It’s no secret that our two founders started as apprentices. It remains part of what we do. We need people in training and learning ready to do the jobs of tomorrow – that don’t even exist yet.”
Those two founders being David McMurtry, now both Sir David and executive chairman, and John Deer, non-executive deputy chairman, started the business in a back bedroom 50 years ago.
On a national scale, trying to get a picture of apprenticeships and whether their stock is high is the familiar story about statistics being inconclusive at best. There is criticism from some of the apprenticeship levy and battles with credibility still to be won with some schools and sixth forms.
But Russell is clear, apprenticeships are key, the battle to recruit ongoing and as for the Government scheme to fund the training: “The levy works brilliantly for us. We spend all of our allowance.”
Challenges continue in the detail for the engineering business – as it does with many - in terms of a better male-female split, but it remains resolute and persistent in its quest to find the best ways of attracting talent no matter what the gender or age.
Russell said the plc’s staff worked hard to create a culture within the firm that was supportive, nurturing and inclusive - without marking anyone out as ‘different’.
As we rolled towards 2024 the firm unveiled apprenticeship opportunities at different educational levels, starting with Level 2 apprenticeships (post-GCSE) through to Level 6 degree apprenticeships (post-A Level).
A Level 3 apprentice might start on a salary of £16,500 for the first year, time spent at college (perhaps at Gloucestershire Engineering Training) before moving to a mixture of work placement and college thereafter.
A Level 6 apprentice might start on £18,500 in the first year of training.
“Salaries are not based upon ages until apprentices have qualified and taken up specific roles,” said Russell.
Those roles are available across different disciplines including IT, general manufacturing and engineering, software engineering, embedded electronics and plant maintenance - a sign of just how vast and layered Renishaw is as a business.
In collaboration with regional universities, Level 6 apprentices will work towards a bachelor’s degree via a blended learning programme.
For example, Level 6 software engineers based in Gloucestershire will work towards a BSc in digital and technology solutions from the University of Exeter.
Based on business need and performance, apprentices who start on Level 3 or 4 schemes may be able to progress to degree-level studies, giving them the opportunity to graduate with no student debt.
“Renishaw has always placed huge value on our early careers programmes,” said Simon Biggs, early careers manager at Renishaw, stressing the life-long careers prospects at a firm which employs 5,000 employees in 36 countries.
The majority of Renishaw’s research and development work takes place in the UK, with the largest manufacturing sites located in the UK, Ireland and India.
“Many of our previous apprentices are now in senior roles, including Gareth Hankins, director of group manufacturing and executive board member.
“With a variety of long-term permanent roles available on the completion of the scheme, our apprenticeships open up a huge number of career possibilities.”
Russell said it was not usual for apprentices to work abroad, although it had been known, and certainly as careers moved forward that door was always open to the right person.
For the year ended June 2023 Renishaw recorded sales of £688.6 million of which 95 per cent was due to exports. The company’s largest markets are China, USA, Japan and Germany.
Judging the success of apprenticeships nationally is far more complicated and shows how much of a battle remains for those championing the route to work and career development - with apprenticeship starts down by 3.5 in 2022/23 to 337,140 compared to 349,190 reported for 2021/22.
There has been criticism that they were not helping younger starters enough, with firms instead using the apprenticeship levy to pay for training for already experienced staff.
Advanced apprenticeships accounted for 43.9 per cent of starts (147,930) whilst higher apprenticeships accounted for a 33.5 per cent of starts (112,930).
Higher apprenticeships continue to grow in 2022/23, increasing by 6.2 per cent to 112,930 compared to 106,360 in 2021/22.
Starts at Level 6 and 7 increased by 8.2 per cent to 46,800 in 2022/23. This represents 13.9 per cent of all starts for 2022/23. There were 43,240 Level 6 and 7 starts in 2021/22 (12.4 per cent of starts).
Perhaps surprisingly, in terms of apprenticeship intake the world of engineering is now dwarfed by white-collar apprenticeships in the world of business administration and law, which takes almost a third of new apprentices, and the health, public services and care sector, which claims about 25 per cent of starts.
Engineering and manufacturing technologies is nearer 16 per cent.
But in that way engineers seem to see the world - as one of exciting challenges that need solutions – Renishaw continues to adapt its tactics and serve its purposes.
It is not only an apprenticeship ambassador, it has forged relationships with a multitude of institutions to ensure its apprentices get the right training for their roles.
That includes with institutions like Gloucestershire Engineering Training, Gloucestershire College, the University of Gloucestershire, Stroud College, UWE the University of Coventry, Aston University – the list goes on.
As we said above, just before Christmas Renishaw announced it was offering 64 more apprentices in varying roles across its business for 2024, and positions for 108 graduates, 64 industrial and 30 summer placements.
Raikes checked with Renishaw today (Monday February 5), and we can confirm applications for apprenticeships remain open until Monday, 12 February 2024 (the end of National Apprenticeship Week) and around half of the graduate placement roles remain up for grabs - but not for long.
“We have been inundated with applications from very strong candidates for all our early careers schemes,” said Chris Pockett, the firm’s head of communications, who said all applications were expected to close within the next couple of weeks.
“We are therefore in the great position of being able to select high calibre individuals to enter our recruitment process and join the company later this year.”
Here’s a quick link to Renishaw’s apprenticeships page
Some dates for your week ahead?
Wednesday
☕ If you have not visited Spago restaurant and cafe at Gloucester Quays, want to and also have a hankering to meet some news faces from the business world, this could be for you. Gloucester UNO Business Networking is due to stage its next event there on Wednesday February 7 from 7.30am to 9am. Members come from across the spectrum of Gloucestershire's business sectors. You can find out more here.
Thursday
🎓Gloucestershire Young Professionals February social event is due to take place today (Thursday, February 8) at The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie in Cheltenham, sponsored by Hazlewoods. It’s due to take place from 6pm until late. There is a maximum of three representatives per business. Ticket price includes a drink and canapes. This is all about helping young entrepreneurs and professionals from all industries to get to know one another. Find out more here.
Friday
Not exactly a business event like the ones above, although it is an event staged by a business. And we want to make sure we support even the smallest businesses when we can. This is R & R Delights Pop Up! at Stroud’s Five Valleys Shopping Centre. Already a focus for foodies, thanks to its food hall, from 10am to 1pm the centre will also be a temporary home to R & R Delights stand selling a range of mouthwatering cakes.
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable!
🔓 You’ve been reading a free edition of The Raikes Journal, for which we are grateful. Please do spread the word about what we are trying to do - create a real, journalistically-led, community-orientated, Gloucestershire-focused digital magazine. If you upgrade to paid, you will get on average eight extra members-only editions every month and will be able to see beyond any paywalls, as well as read Raikes’ rolling Top 100-plus Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will also be allowed to comment on stories, make suggestions for what we should be writing about, vote in our awards, and might even be invited to our roundtable events. And you’ll be supporting the rebirth of high-quality journalism in Gloucestershire on a website championing the county you love — all for just £2.30 per week (£12 a month or £120 a year! Ask us about 20 per cent off for groups of two or more subscribers).