RW Bell puts spark into apprenticeship training

RW Bell has taken a strong line in recruiting apprentices and by doing so has been very successful.

Started by World War II veteran Robbie Bell in 1947, electrical contractor RW Bell has managed its evolution better than most.

Celebrating its 60th birthday this year, the firm remains a cornerstone of the Pitlochry commercial market where it is based, but has since spread its influence across the whole of Scotland.

Flexibility has been pivotal to RW Bell's success and is best seen today in the forward thinking approach it has taken to training and apprenticeships, led by the current managing director Stephen Carruthers, whose father was the firm's first employee back in 1949.

Mr Carruthers (junior) joined the firm in 1983 as an apprentice and having served his time went on to Dundee College to study a degree in economics and then Strathclyde University where he completed a postgraduate diploma in marketing.

He returned to RW Bell in 1990 and took over the reigns in 1997 when his father and the remaining partners retired.

Since then he has run the company with fellow director Alan Smith who joined RW Bell as an apprentice in 1985.

Mr Carruthers's is not perhaps the usual path followed by an electrical contractor, and perhaps few would expect a man in his position to carry such qualifications, but then RW Bell likes to do things its own way and does not expound the usual views on the industry in which it operates.

"There is a misconception that the standard of people coming through today is much worse than it used to be in the past.

This is nonsense.

People are as bright and as able as they have ever been, but because more and more students are going on to further education, many of the trades have been left to recruit from the shrinking pool of those left behind".

Too many firms have been happy to simply bemoan their luck as times have changed, rather than make the effort to attract the quality of recruit they want and need, according to Mr Carruthers.

"I am looking for the same standard of apprentice as any college or university," he claims.

The firm will only take on those genuinely capable of doing the job and has sought out slightly older individuals when recruiting.

Indeed new starts tend not to be younger than 18, with many closer to 20, despite incentives and usual industry practice leading many firms to take on much younger people.

RW Bell has also been clever in its advertising and played on the heavy burden of debt now carried by many graduating students.

"In recent years we have advertised to school leavers along the lines of 'How would you like to earn GBP20 000 after four years?' and tried to make them really think of the options they have.

Deciding not to go into further education is not necessarily a bad thing, as we have been conditioned to believe, and the apprenticeships available are better than they have ever been," says Mr Carruthers.

The approach has clearly worked and RW Bell now has a waiting list of apprentices looking for a start.

By taking on older and better quality individuals it has also had a number of successes in industry apprenticeship awards.

While the firm has done much to improve its own performance, there is no reason why others could not follow its example.

David Wright, head of external affairs at industry association SELECT, says: "RW Bell has taken a strong line in recruiting apprentices and by doing so has been very successful.

The electrical trade should not be seen as a last resort for school leavers and we and our member firms have worked hard to change this underlying misconception.

"However we must all work harder to compete with universities and colleges and attract the type of people that can take the industry forward.

There is no doubt they are out there, but it is up to us to find them rather than waiting for them to knock on our door." Indeed, such is RW Bell's conviction in its approach to new apprentices that it is prepared to forgo much of the grants that are paid by Scottish Enterprise towards the cost of training.

The firm is eligible for a yearly grant of GBP7500 for each apprentice between the age of 16 and 18.

However this falls sharply to GBP3500 once individuals hit the ripe old age of 19.

Mr Carruthers says: "The benefit to our business of training and keeping a good apprentice is incomparable to what we lose out on financially by sometimes taking on older apprentices.

We have found that by relying more on the quality of apprentice, rather than the grants available we have been able to generate a much better return for the company".

This attitude is symptomatic of the philosophies that have kept RW Bell ahead of the game over the years.

The company may be about to celebrate its 60th birthday, but its commercial outlook is as fresh and enthusiastic as its employees.

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