When Brighouse window and door fabricator Quickslide decided to create an apprentice scheme as a further means of encouraging young people to join the business, the firm turned to glazing industry skills and career advisory organisation Building Our Skills (BOS) for guidance on achieving the best outcome for its project.
BOS was created to bridge the growing skills gap faced by the industry, by working closely with employers and other organisations to attract young and new entrants and by advising on areas of upskilling the existing workforce to ensure it can meet future challenges and continue to prosper. As part of its quest to ‘inform, encourage, support and inspire’, BOS also works with a number of organisations to enable companies to implement recruitment and training schemes, such as that developed for Quickslide.
After contacting BOS for guidance on employing young people to join the company as apprentices, Quickslide was connected with GFTS Ltd, an organisation that specialises in providing training within the fenestration and construction industries. Working with the head of Quickslide’s Human Resources team, Rachael Doran, GFTS is providing guidance on apprenticeship schemes and strategies for recruitment and training. The organisation will also work with Quickslide to find suitable candidates, carry out initial vetting and assistance with interviews.
Rachael Doran commented: “Amongst a number of other initiatives that Quickslide is implementing to bring new people to the company and provide training for new and our existing staff, we are determined to bring young people into our business and the glazing industry,” she explained. “As Building Our Skills sets out to demonstrate to young and new people, the fenestration industry continues to be incredibly successful, even throughout the difficult times of the past year and there are tremendous opportunities for careers with various skill sets that will set people up for life,” she added.
Quickslide Chairman Adrian Barraclough is passionate about the development of young people in the business: “Through an introduction by Stephanie Tague at BOS, we are now working with GFTS to find two apprentices initially, to come and join us at Quickslide, specifically in our frame production facilities,” he said. “We have many people with us at Quickslide who took a job with us and now have a career,” he said, “and there are tremendous opportunities at Quickslide for development and progression within a business that is growing very quickly. BOS is an excellent initiative to show people what a great industry this is.”
