To celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, the Hull Bus Alliance has decided to shine a spotlight on the amazing work undertaken by apprentices at the city’s bus operators.
Stagecoach East Midlands offers an award-winning engineering apprenticeship scheme and goes to great lengths to make sure that apprentices get the knowledge and skills they need to accomplish their goals and provide them with a robust career.
The work of apprentices directly benefits customers in Hull, as the bus company employs several engineering apprentices at its Foster Street Depot, maintaining its fleet of vehicles to provide the most reliable and best possible service each day.
Adam Flowers, a third-year mechelec apprentice, joined the company straight from school and is one of three apprentices currently at Stagecoach, in Hull, as part of the Stagecoach Group’s apprenticeship programme.
Adam said: “It has been a brilliant experience working with Stagecoach East Midlands. I feel like a valued member of the team and have been supported throughout, with lots of help with my theory work.
“It was an honour to be recognised as Apprentice of the Year, but also rewarding for all my hard work I’d put in. I would absolutely recommend doing an apprenticeship with Stagecoach.”
Ian Purdy, engineering manager at Stagecoach East Midlands, said: “Adam won our Apprentice of the Year Award last year and is learning how to diagnose and repair faults on the mechanical and electrical systems of large vehicles, mainly public service vehicles but also heavy goods vehicles as part of his course.
“In addition to this, Adam and our other engineering apprentices also attend vehicle manufacturers’ courses as part of their apprenticeship, with the end goal of qualifying as a master technician.
“While they do most of their training on the job, at the depot, they also attend Wolverhampton College – Stagecoach’s training partner – one week every six weeks.”
Matt Cranwell, managing director of Stagecoach East Midlands, said: “Stagecoach East Midlands are committed to consistently supporting young apprentices and graduates, and we have a very good pedigree in performance and retention of these young people – which we’re incredibly proud of. Adam is yet another fantastic example of this, and we’d encourage anyone reading this that if you’re keen on getting into these fields, seek out the available opportunities local to you.”
Stagecoach’s apprenticeship programmes run at a number of UK locations, starting in August or September, each year, including Hull.
Councillor Mark Ieronimo, cabinet portfolio holder for transport and infrastructure at Hull City Council, said: “It is fantastic to see young people, like Adam, developing their careers through apprenticeships here in our city.
“The work Adam and his colleagues at Stagecoach do each and every day has such a positive impact on the lives of our residents and communities, helping us achieve our ambition of creating a healthier and fairer Hull and encouraging more people to choose sustainable forms of transport, like bus travel.”
For further details about engineering apprenticeships at Stagecoach, visit www.stagecoachbus.com/careers/roles/stagecoach-mechelec-apprenticeships