SMT GB’s newest cohort of Engineering Apprentices were welcomed into the company with an induction event at Duxford Head Office from the 31 October to 3 November.
The week began with a meet and greet lunch with SMT GB CEO, Nick Allen, before moving onto a tour of the Duxford site, an introduction to the Volvo Products and an opportunity to experience the Volvo excavator and articulated hauler simulators, supported by Alex McElwee, Product Specialist and Richard Cannon, Product Manager for Operator Efficiency Solutions.
The Apprentices were encouraged to experience the simulators to gain insight into an operators perspective. Richard had set the simulators up with targets to complete, to help them understand the pressures an operator is under in their role and why it is essential for machines to be repaired correctly at the first visit so that daily operations can continue.
Wednesday focused on mentor training, engaging both mentors and apprentices in group activities to establish their partnerships, before moving onto a very informative customer site visit on Thursday morning with Aggregate Industries at their Great Paxton Site, near St Neots.
The visit to Aggregate Industries was hosted by Steve MacNamara with the purpose being for the apprentices to experience how an active site operates. This aimed to show how easily a site can be impacted by machine downtime and the many roles and relationships that engineering work affects.
The Apprentices were welcomed with an online Health and Safety induction, providing them with an example of what they will need to do when visiting a customer’s site as an engineer. This stressed the importance of reporting incidents and machine repair progress on site to keep the customer informed throughout.
Following on from this, the apprentices were given a tour of the site, highlighting the scale of the operations and both static and mobile plant machinery used. This was a key part of the visit which demonstrated how uptime and efficiency is critical to a business’ productivity, emphasising how machine downtime applies pressure to the entire supply chain. In addition to understanding operations of the quarry the apprentices learned about the history and restoration stages prior to handing back to the Nature Reserve, and the importance of wildlife habitat for lapwings and redshanks.
SMT GB has a strong relationship with Aggregate Industries and is focused on growing a solutions based partnership which has been strengthened through collaboration, such as our apprentice event. Aggregate Industries and SMT GB are both driven to support the future of the construction industry by providing our new apprentices with the best industry experiences and knowledge as they commence their exciting new career.
Thursday afternoon focused on Environment and Quality, a key area all employees need to consider. This was delivered by Paul Burr, QESH Manager and Tony Curtis, Quality and Dealer Operating Standards Manager at SMT GB. Their final day was focused on SMT Health & Safety delivered by Anthony McCann, Healthy & Safety Manager.
All in all a great start to their careers with SMT by building strong links across the many areas of SMT and beyond.
