Selco Builders Warehouse has marked National Apprenticeship Week by revealing plans to invest in the development of more than 150 colleagues in 2021.
The leading builders’ merchant says it is continuing to deliver on its promise to offer career development opportunities for people working across the growing business. For example, Selco’s Rising Stars initiative – which helps colleagues across the 69-strong branch network upskill and progress to the next level – already has over 100 people enrolled and working through the nationally recognised Level Two qualification, with plans to increase that number on the scheme later this year.
In addition, more than 30 colleagues are due to complete the Selco Driver Academy in the early part of this year by passing their Level 2 LGV Apprenticeship, qualifying them as HGV drivers. A new Driver Academy cohort is also planned for later in 2021.
Marc Lucock, HR Director at Selco, said: “We are committed to giving colleagues the chance to create a genuine career path and providing them with the skills, techniques and self-development to do that. The logistics behind the programmes have been made harder due to Covid-19 but we have remained on track with timings and are getting a lot of positive feedback from colleagues thrilled to be given the opportunities to progress their career.
“We are using our Apprenticeship Levy contributions to help fund the programmes and they are making a real difference to colleagues across the business. It’s a major success story of career development programmes.”
The Rising Star courses run for between 12 and 18 months and focus on 16 key areas, including customer, financial, leadership, technology, team performance and the environment. The bronze programme – which is currently running – has been open for colleagues who aspire to progress to become a supervisor.
Forthcoming schemes due to start later this year are silver – for colleagues holding a supervisory position who wish to have the opportunity to become a duty manager – and gold, which offers duty and deputy managers the chance to enhance their skills and further develop their knowledge relevant to Selco to become qualified branch managers.
