National Apprenticeship Week aims to highlight some of the amazing work of Apprentices across the UK do as well as the employers who support them. As one of the UK’s biggest providers of Apprenticeships to the automotive industry, Skillnet currently trains over 1400 Apprentices nationwide. We’re incredibly proud of each and every Apprentice and are constantly impressed by the breadth of knowledge, the ambition and the dedication that our Apprentices possess.
This National Apprenticeship Week we spoke to two people whose work is fundamental to ensuring things run smoothly both for employers and Apprentices: Ann Cardus and Sarah Bardens.
Ann Cardus is the Dealer Training Manager for Ford of Britain. She’s been in the role since May 2018 but has worked at Ford for an incredible 29 (and a half) years! Having joined the company after completing a degree in marketing and maths. Ann has been in many roles over the years but says her current role is the best job she’s had!
Sarah Bardens is the People Partnership Manager for MOTUS Commercials. Sarah only joined the motor industry three years ago but is well versed in the world of training, having worked as an assessor within training providers in number of industries previously. Sarah champions each and every learner under her care and told us: “if somethings worth doing, it’s worth putting the effort in!”
We chatted to Ann and Sarah about their roles, the careers to date and, of course, Apprenticeships. Here’s what they said:
When did you first become interested in the sector?
Ann: I went to a university that encourage people to do work placements. I worked for 3 companies during my placement and they were okay, but I had fellow students who had spoken positively about working at Ford. I like cars but I’m not a petrol head – at the time I was young and I liked driving, it was a bit of a novelty. I applied to Ford as part of the Milkround. They came back after the recruitment process offering me a job and I said, “thanks do you mind if I delay the offer for a year whilst I travel around the world?” and they said yes! I consider myself very lucky.
Sarah: I only joined the motor industry in 2018, when I took this job. I had no knowledge of trucks at all other than as a child my uncle used to be a truck driver and I used to take rides in them and I loved them! I’ve always been in awe of trucks – I’m a bit of a geek in that way.
What was your career path before this?
Ann: I started scheduling vehicles for production. They gave me Escort Cabriolet and once I’d mastered that, they gave me Orion. You used to take all of the orders from all of the markets and decide which orders would be built on each days looking at a number of manufacturing constraints and the priorities that were attached to the individual orders. At the end of it I was doing about four vehicles. I only stayed in that role for about 9 months. Then I went for a job where I was scheduling powertrain production, so that’s looking at the orders, figuring out what the powertrain demand is for the different vehicles and then allocating powertrain production to different markets and also getting forecasting information for those markets so you can balance it against production.
Later I applied for a fleet sales role – going out and visiting fleet customers and persuading them to buy Ford. Looking back I still think that’s a fair amount of responsibility to give somebody who didn’t really know what she was doing! Then I moved to the States and went to Dearborn to work in product development on the Transit programme because Ford had moved truck development to America. The suburbs where you lived were lovely and it was great to live out there for about 2.5 years.
Sarah: My background is I worked with training providers – I was an assessor. I did all those roles that made me (essentially) the perfect candidate for this job. That sounds really vain!
Employers know they want Apprentices and they know there’s funding available but they don’t always know a lot more and they rely on the training providers to guide them. I had all of that knowledge that I could bring into the business so we could really make sure that our Apprenticeships were the best that we could make them. So anyone who had done my jobs in the past would be the ideal candidate. On one hand I have lots of empathy with the training providers because I know what challenges you guys have, I know when you’ve got time challenges and the mountains of paperwork that needs to be done for an Apprenticeship that an employer might not appreciate, but equally then from an employer point of view, I know what goes on behind the scenes so I can push for things to be done. So it works on a really nice balance.
How are you enjoying your current role?
Ann: It’s less about what you’re doing and more about who you’re working with. The Henry Ford Academy team is a large team – there are about 50 people. They’re recruited because they’re good at what they do. So everyone has something that they have experience in and that they’re good at before they come to the academy. It’s really refreshing to work amongst experts.
Sarah: I love seeing the youngsters coming in to an interview and they’re shy (some are not shy) and they’re so young and so tiny. Some of them are only 15! You see them a year on and I say to them “what have you been standing in?” because in a year they shoot up, in another year they’ve suddenly got a beard! That relationship I have with them as they build on is really nice and to see them achieve at the end.
What is it about Apprenticeships that makes you so passionate?
Ann: It gives people an opportunity to join an industry and to learn everything that they need to know at a grounding level. From there they can go anywhere and do anything but it’s a structured root in.
Some of the degree apprenticeships that we participate in have brought some amazing people into the organisation. One of the best and most professional individuals I’ve had to deal with in IT went through the IT degree Apprenticeship. I’ve never seen that level of professionalism from somebody so new into the company. The advantage that he’s had is that he’s had his degree funded, he now has a job with Ford Motor Company which isn’t an easy thing to achieve, and the apprenticeship seems to have completely prepared him for life at Ford.
Sarah: I love seeing our Apprentices become mentors. The ex-Apprentices have so much empathy with the new Apprentices, and when they pick up the phone and say “what can I do next?” it’s so nice cause they’ve clearly had a good time.
I always think of one particular Apprentice. From year one we had his parents in, he was up to mischief, he wasn’t doing his work. We’d bring him in, and he’d pull himself up a bit and then he’d let himself slip, but he had the makings of a really good technician. The service managers can see that – they can see a talent in somebody. The most recent time we had his mentor in with us and he was thinking “I’m not going to let this kid slip through the net”. He worked really closely with him and this Apprentice is absolutely flying now.
His works ahead, his quality of his practical work is excellent, he’s never going to change his personality, he’s always going to be a bit of a jack the lad, but that’s the nice thing about somebody, as long as he can channel it rather than let it hinder his progress.
At the end when you see that they’ve turned themselves around and they’ve got that qualification and they’re a technician and a member of the team and also the other people in that team respect them for their work, that’s a really, really big thing, the achievement you feel. Seeing that is just fantastic.
Do you have any advice for people starting out in the sector?
Ann: Before you apply to join a manufacturer, spend some time trying to understand how a dealership works. Having the experience understanding the different departments in a dealership (and you can do that through work experience or just by talking to the local dealership), its instrumental to so much of what goes on.
It helps to have qualifications that are vaguely relevant – it might help, but if you don’t, don’t see it as a barrier. When you’re choosing your degree, don’t try and choose a degree based on a future career aspiration – study something that you love and that you’re going to wake up every morning wanting to know more about.
Sarah: The main thing is, if it’s what you’re interested in, don’t let people sway you. You’ll always end up coming back to that in the long run because its where your passion lies.
For people looking for an Apprenticeship, I’m looking for somebody who wants an Apprenticeship in this job, they don’t just want an Apprenticeship. You’ve got to show us why do you want to work on a truck; why do you want to work in mechanics; why do you want to work in engineering? It’s got to be that real passion and want to do it and that will come through in your interview, and you’re more likely to get the job.