{"id":11755,"date":"2017-03-09T15:38:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T15:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11755"},"modified":"2017-03-09T16:13:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T16:13:01","slug":"best-decision-youll-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11755","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Best decision you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Nikita Taylor began her four-year electrical engineering apprenticeship at the Vauxhall plant in Luton she was one of only a handful of women working at the site.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOver the six years that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had apprentices coming in, there has only been two women \u00e2\u20ac\u201c myself and another girl in my year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained 22-year-old Unite member Nikita, who finished her apprenticeship two years ago.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still definitely a predominantly male workforce. When I first arrived as a teenager it was a bit strange, because most of the guys here are old enough to be my dad.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t only the lack of women<\/a> and the age gap that Nikita struggled with \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the company had just restarted its apprenticeship<\/a> programme and there were teething problems.<\/p>\n

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Nikita said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen I started they hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t taken on apprentices for 15 years and that showed. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost their teaching skills and their ability to talk to young people. New ideas and fresh thinking weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t getting through.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was a bit of a struggle at the beginning but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve adapted and have really helped us. I just think that companies shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get out of the habit of bringing apprenticeships into the workforce.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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A few employers are now waking up<\/a> to the fact that more apprentices are needed to fill the skills gap<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially in the wake of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to leave the EU, which threatens to shrink the British market for skilled labour.<\/p>\n

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Despite recent moves to rectify the problems by individual companies, significant collective action needs to be taken. According to the non-profit\u00c2\u00a0Engineering UK\u00c2\u00a0advocacy group, 182,000 skilled workers are needed every year until 2022 to\u00c2\u00a0remedy shortages.<\/p>\n

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One of the issues linked to recruitment shortages for skilled workers is that of gender. Currently just 7 per cent of new engineering apprentices are women, a 2017 Engineering UK report found.<\/p>\n

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Choices at school<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nikita said that in her experience much of this stems from girls not being properly taught about their choices at school.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI think that maybe girls have the view that (many of these roles) are men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jobs. I blame schools, because (the girls) haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been taught enough to develop an interest in subjects like engineering. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think schools really push apprenticeships either,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

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Some steps are now being taken to close the skills gap, with plans to create 3m more apprenticeships<\/a> and increase investment, however Unite says the government needs to do much more<\/a> to advance apprenticeships and skills-based education.<\/p>\n

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The union is also on the forefront of changing workforce culture \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with initiatives like the Women in Construction Network<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a move to attract more females into roles traditionally occupied by men.<\/p>\n

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While there is still a long way to go on both fronts, Nikita says that young women should not be put off from joining apprenticeship schemes in sectors like engineering.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learnt so much from my colleagues. Their experience is phenomenal and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taught me so much. I was encouraged from the start of my apprenticeship to join Unite and the advice I received from the union has been amazing as well,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Nikita said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy advice for girls thinking of becoming an apprentice is to go for it. You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look back and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be the best decision you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever made.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Nikita Taylor began her four-year electrical engineering apprenticeship at the Vauxhall plant in Luton she was one of only a handful of women working at the site.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOver the six years that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had apprentices coming in, there has only been two women \u00e2\u20ac\u201c myself and another girl in my year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 explained 22-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[260],"wps_subtitle":"Apprentice Nikita Taylor says you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t regret it","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11756,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755\/revisions\/11756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}