We’ve been taking apprentices since first gas-fired street lights

As British Gas pledges to train 32 recruits, City Gateway youngsters meet living proof of what they can achieve. David Cohen reports
p12 Sty David Cohen: Ladder For London; Apprentices from City Gateway with British Gas staff at their headquarters in Staines, Middlesex. From left; Bob Kerr of British Gas, Ezeikel Baker, 23, Chris Samuelson of British Gas, Hayley Overington of British Gas, John Kerr of British Gas, MD of British Gas; Phil Bentley, CEO of City Gateway; Eddie Stride, Mitchel Jepheart, 17, HR Direcotr of British Gas; Angela Williams, and Sajida Sultana, 18. PHOTO MATT WRITTLE © copyright Matt Writtle 2012. Picture commissioned exclusively for the London Evening Standard. Use in another publication will require a fee.
Matt Writtle
26 October 2012

Young people are the future of this country and we are committed to invest in you and give you a career.” This was the message delivered to a group of eager would-be apprentices by British Gas managing director Phil Bentley in the unlikely location of a trailer truck parked outside their head office in Staines.

“You guys will be the face of British Gas far more than me,” he said, showing them around the company’s mobile training facility packed with the latest technology.

“We’ve always trained apprentices — we’ve been doing it for 200 years, ever since we were the first company in the world to install gas-fired street lighting. It’s a shame a lot of other companies have stopped hiring apprentices, but we have persisted because we believe in the principle and we have never been disappointed.”

His passionate embrace of the apprenticeship model came as British Gas became the biggest taker so far to sign up to Ladder for London, pledging to hire 32 apprentices, “one for every London borough”.

It takes our campaign through the 100 mark in just seven working days, with a dozen employers — Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland, Pret A Manger, City of London Corporation and Saracens rugby club among them — agreeing to create 102 apprenticeships.

British Gas will pay the apprentices the London living wage of £8.30 an hour, plus a free travel card, and they will be recruited from our campaign partner City Gateway. The apprenticeship is for one year and they will be trained at the British Gas Dartford academy to become Smart Energy Experts — a role that covers training to install new smart meters (by law all 42 million old meters must be replaced by 2019) as well as delivering on-site advice to customers to reduce energy bills.

Those apprentices who stay with the company beyond the 12 months will progress to a package of £15,000 to £20,000 a year, said Mr Bentley, and could expect salaries of £60,000-plus if they reached senior management.

Mr Bentley pointed to Bob Kerr, head of health and safety who had joined him in the trailer, as “living proof” of what an apprentice could achieve.

Mr Kerr, 47, told the youngsters how he had joined British Gas as a 16-year-old apprentice 31 years ago. “I left school on the Friday and started at British Gas on the Monday. I never thought I’d stay more than six months, but here I am, all these years later.”

City Gateway recruit Ezeikel Baker, 23, an amateur boxer and sports fitness apprentice with “no schooling worth mentioning”, was gripped. “Wicked man!” he said. “It does sound quite good. I hadn’t expected this. My mum and dad always told me to think long-term and to try to learn a skill where you can go far and get promoted.”

Mitchel Jepheart, 17, who has just completed his pre-apprenticeship with City Gateway, was similarly impressed. “The funny thing is that I applied for a job with British Gas after school but I didn’t get it [British Gas say that 50 people apply for each job]. Now I have this unique chance through Ladder for London.”

Had Bob Kerr been nervous, he wanted to know, when he started as a teenager all those years ago? “On the day I started, I walked into the Kingston depot and it was full of older qualified engineers and I thought, ‘I will never fit in here,” he said. “I hadn’t been the best student — I got a couple of O-levels for woodwork and English — but that didn’t matter because they trained me and after a while I started to feel part of the family.

“Within a year, I realised that if I applied myself, British Gas would take care of me and that there was a career waiting for me if I wanted it.”

Mr Kerr, now married with two children, added: “It was that crucial first step on the ladder towards what is now a great standard of living : I earn a good salary, I’ve got a detached four-bedroom house, a car and a great pension.”

So much so that his 17-year-old son John (who had also come to meet the potential recruits) signed up last year as a service and repair apprentice.

“We have a lot of people like Bob,” said Mr Bentley. “People who come to British Gas, stay, grow with the company, gain skills and then pass them on to the younger generation. We put £30,000 into training each and every apprentice and its worth it — because 96 per cent of our trainees complete our apprenticeships, and 90 per cent of those who complete it are still with us five years later.”

British Gas is especially looking for young people who show aptitude to get on with customers, said Angela Williams, human resources director. “The technical side we can teach, but good people skills tend to be more innate. We are especially keen to hire women. A lot of the customers our engineers interact with in the home are women, and our feedback is that female engineers are best at building rapport. We hope that 30 to 50 per cent of our Ladder for London cohort are women.”

Sajida Sultana, 18, a third City Gateway recruit who had stood quietly to one side, smiled and said: “I feel a bit overwhelmed. I am not shy, normally, but I don’t know anyone here, so this is difficult for me.”

Sajida got 12 good GCSEs, but dropped out of sixth form. “I want to earn money so that I can save up to study criminology at university one day,” she said. “That is my dream. Maybe I could work here for a few years because they offer a lot. I can see that for the right person, it could be a life-changer.” As the meeting broke up, Ezeikel took the chance to quiz John Kerr on his apprenticeship training. “What’s brilliant,” said John, “is they are teaching us to drive and putting us through our Duke of Edinburgh gold award, which teaches you teamwork and is one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

On the train back to Waterloo, Ezeikel became animated and tried to call his brother, Hakeem. “He wants to be an engineer so this apprenticeship is right up his street, man. He is 22 but he is lying around at home without a job and I want to tell him about this amazing opportunity.”

He shook his head. “I was unemployed last year and that was a very hard time. This is a chance to broaden my horizons. I hadn’t expected to say this, but I can see myself applying here.”

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