City Link inundated with apprentices
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CITY LINK received more than 5,000 enquiries for the 80 places it was offering on its apprenticeship programme, which started this month.
Apprenticeship co-ordinator Peter Nelson told CM that the number of enquiries had exceeded expectation. "We initially thought we'd get into the high hundreds, possibly a couple of thousand. Obviously not all of those people went on to complete application forms, but at least they enquired in the first instance," he said.
City Link used a mixture of approaches to attract and recruit candidates. "We went the traditional route via Jobcentre Plus and advertised on its website.
"We also advertised the scheme in our depots as a lot of employers have school-aged children and teenagers looking to start a career, so that gave us a good start," said Nelson. City Link's apprentice team also researched which schools were near its
depots and contact centres, and wrote to them with details of the apprentice programme and when the recruitment process would start.
"We also worked with A4E [Action for Employment], a government-backed organisation that assists unemployed people to find work. We have taken on a few people via this route," added Nelson.
A pre-screen and interview process carried out by City Link's staff whittled down the initial applicants, with successful candidates then invited to assessment centres.
"At the assessment centres, we carried out a functional skills verification so that we could tailor each person's apprenticeship to them. We also gave each group of candidates two problems to solve as a team; this enabled us to assess each candidate's problem-solving skills and how they worked as part of a team," said Nelson. Asked what qualities City Link was looking for in the 16 to 24-year-olds, Nelson
said: "Somebody who wants to learn, because while we can't guarantee a job at the end of their apprenticeship, we want them to have the best learning journey possible over the 12 months to put them in a prime position to apply for vacancies that arise at our depots."
The 80 new recruits have taken up placements across the parcel carrier's UK network: 17 are undertaking a level 2 apprenticeship in contact centre operations — a new qualification created by City Link — and the remaining 63 are doing a level 2 apprenticeship in warehousing and distribution.
"I would love to see these apprentices working as depot managers in 10 years' time," said Nelson. "We want to promote from within and bring in new people.
"Getting them from the ground level upwards is important for our business." • Contact Jobcentre Plus: gov.ukkontactjobcentre-plus or A4E: mya4e.com