Where will your apprenticeship take you?

Glendale is joining organisations across the UK marking National Apprenticeship Week between 14 and 18 March 2016.

The week-long event is coordinated by the National Apprenticeship Service and celebrates the positive impact that apprenticeships have on the individuals who undertake them, as well as businesses and the wider economy.

The key theme for this year’s National Apprenticeship Week is ‘an apprenticeship can take you anywhere’, and one of Glendale’s apprentices is doing just that.

Twenty-four-year-old Alex Lambert from Liverpool is about to embark on an 18-month training and development scholarship in the United States.  He completed a five-year apprenticeship with Glendale Liverpool in 2015, achieving an NVQ Level 2 and 3 in Fine Turf.  In the coming months, he will be putting this training to good use on a turfgrass internship run by Ohio State University.

The Ohio Program will see him maintaining some of the best golf courses across North America, starting with the Hyde Park Golf and Country Club in Cincinnati, and building specialist skills in fine and sports turf maintenance on a variety of different types of grass surface.

Alex Lambert comments: “This is a massive step in my career.  The Ohio Program is world renowned in the greenkeeping industry and many of the biggest superintendents have done this at some point in their careers.

“I hope to become a superintendent of a high-quality course one day and hopefully this programme will take me a step closer to that goal.  It would not have been possible without my apprenticeship with Glendale and a lot of hard work.  The apprenticeship with Glendale is a great gateway into your chosen field and this experience just shows what can be achieved.”

Apprentices like Alex make a statement about the continued significance of long-term investment into young people in an industry where the number of qualified personnel entering the sector is in decline.

In order to combat this decline and increase the number of opportunities available to young people across the UK, Glendale joined The 5% Club in February 2016 and committed to having 5% of its total workforce as apprentices, sponsored students or graduates within the next five years.

Andy Corcoran, managing director for Glendale, comments: “We currently have many apprentices with us, all of whom are invaluable to the company and we’re excited to welcome even more of them in the coming years and provide them with the professional qualifications and practical training needed to build their careers wherever it might take them.”