Employer case study: CET
Kian is one of CET's many successful apprentices. His experience in CET's call centre, Marketing, IT, and Client Management, is leading to a full-time role.
CET serves as an outsourcing partner for some of the biggest and best-known insurers in the UK. It is based in Castle Donington and, over the last two years, has doubled in size. With such growth and a commitment to bringing in more young people, an apprenticeship programme seemed like the perfect option. But with the company having moved to a homeworking model during Covid lockdown, would young apprentices face hurdles in their work-based learning?
CET’s home-based apprentices are, in fact, thriving, as Jan Fairhurst, HR Manager, explains.
“As part of our commitment to developing ‘home grown’ talent, we took the decision to launch our new Apprenticeship programme in 2020. Our CEO at the time had started his own career as an apprentice, so knew the power of this type of on-the-job learning.
It was our HR consultant, Mark, who put Access Training in front of us. He knew how serious we were about developing an apprenticeship programme which would deliver on our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitment to be a responsible employer, and which would help our company meet the standards expected of Investors in People. In Access Training, we have found a partner who shares our commitment not only to supporting more young people to enter the workplace, but to doing so in the most professional and caring way.
Access Training helped us to develop a programme perfectly aligned to our business needs. The six learners who started with us in our Home Emergency and Contractor Network teams, in December 2020, are now on track to shortly complete the end point assessments of their Level 2 Customer Service Practitioner apprenticeships. A further two apprentices who joined us in August are settling in really well.
Adapting our training programmes accordingly
Our youngest apprentice was only 16 when she joined us, and the oldest 20.
It’s fair to say that, at such a young age, they all had limited work and life experience. Not being homeowners themselves, there were elements of our work that were completely alien (for example, understanding what home emergency cover is).
We realised there would be value in extending our usual staff induction programme from four to six weeks, to cover more of these basics. Reviewing and adapting our training in this way has benefited new staff across the board, not only our apprentices.
Most of our apprentices move departments every two and a half months so that they get a solid understanding of the entire customer journey, through Operations Support and Customer Service. It’s something we’ve decided to introduce for all new staff, and is one example of how our apprenticeship programme is having a much wider impact on the policies of the wider business.
Of course, implementing a new apprenticeship programme requires commitment from both the apprentice and employer. As well as the pastoral care involved, it’s our role to collate development plans and witness testimonials. The hard work is certainly worth it, however, when you see how prepared our apprentices are to make the transition to permanent employees.
A credit to our company
I am really proud of how our apprentices have applied themselves and of the commitment they show each and every day. As part of their training, they have all taken 24/7 emergency calls and handled them well. In fact, some of them have scored amongst the highest in agent rankings.
Coming into any business is hard, especially when it’s a high-pressure emergency cover environment. As such, we have, in the past, struggled to find the right candidates to stay with our business. We have Amy, Sally and Zoe at Access Training to thank for putting the right individuals in front of us, and for working with our Training team to make the CET apprenticeship programme such a rewarding one. A real team effort!
Apprentices are, without question, part of our long-term talent development programme here at CET.”
CET’s home-based apprentices are, in fact, thriving, as Jan Fairhurst, HR Manager, explains.
“As part of our commitment to developing ‘home grown’ talent, we took the decision to launch our new Apprenticeship programme in 2020. Our CEO at the time had started his own career as an apprentice, so knew the power of this type of on-the-job learning.
It was our HR consultant, Mark, who put Access Training in front of us. He knew how serious we were about developing an apprenticeship programme which would deliver on our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitment to be a responsible employer, and which would help our company meet the standards expected of Investors in People. In Access Training, we have found a partner who shares our commitment not only to supporting more young people to enter the workplace, but to doing so in the most professional and caring way.
Access Training helped us to develop a programme perfectly aligned to our business needs. The six learners who started with us in our Home Emergency and Contractor Network teams, in December 2020, are now on track to shortly complete the end point assessments of their Level 2 Customer Service Practitioner apprenticeships. A further two apprentices who joined us in August are settling in really well.
Adapting our training programmes accordingly
Our youngest apprentice was only 16 when she joined us, and the oldest 20.
It’s fair to say that, at such a young age, they all had limited work and life experience. Not being homeowners themselves, there were elements of our work that were completely alien (for example, understanding what home emergency cover is).
We realised there would be value in extending our usual staff induction programme from four to six weeks, to cover more of these basics. Reviewing and adapting our training in this way has benefited new staff across the board, not only our apprentices.
Most of our apprentices move departments every two and a half months so that they get a solid understanding of the entire customer journey, through Operations Support and Customer Service. It’s something we’ve decided to introduce for all new staff, and is one example of how our apprenticeship programme is having a much wider impact on the policies of the wider business.
Of course, implementing a new apprenticeship programme requires commitment from both the apprentice and employer. As well as the pastoral care involved, it’s our role to collate development plans and witness testimonials. The hard work is certainly worth it, however, when you see how prepared our apprentices are to make the transition to permanent employees.
A credit to our company
I am really proud of how our apprentices have applied themselves and of the commitment they show each and every day. As part of their training, they have all taken 24/7 emergency calls and handled them well. In fact, some of them have scored amongst the highest in agent rankings.
Coming into any business is hard, especially when it’s a high-pressure emergency cover environment. As such, we have, in the past, struggled to find the right candidates to stay with our business. We have Amy, Sally and Zoe at Access Training to thank for putting the right individuals in front of us, and for working with our Training team to make the CET apprenticeship programme such a rewarding one. A real team effort!
Apprentices are, without question, part of our long-term talent development programme here at CET.”
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