Thales proud to support National Apprenticeship Week 2016

National Apprenticeship Week (14 – 18 March) held this week, is a celebration for the 130 apprentices across Thales’s business in the UK. In recognition of their contribution, Thales’s apprentices will be visiting various museums, local to their sites, in a celebration of excellence in engineering throughout the history of the UK. A history which Thales has contributed to in many forms, and continues to do so, with the help of these 130 talented young minds. Over the course of the week, apprentices from across eight different Thales sites will be attending engineering focussed educational trips to the likes of the RAF Museum London, the Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport and Travel, the Vulcan Experience and others.
Thales’s business is wide and varied, and our apprenticeship schemes reflect this. So as long as candidates have an inquisitive mind and are keen to learn, Thales can offer them an opportunity to suit across the country. Thales currently has apprentices working in business, manufacturing and engineering roles, all of which are given the same level of focused training and support by the organisation.

As part of the development process, all Thales apprentices get the exciting opportunity to spend a week away at a team building event in the heart of the Lake District. This is something that every Thales apprentice will be given the chance to go and do at ‘Outward Bound’ in Cumbria not once, but twice. Surrounded by the beautiful Cumbrian countryside and home to England’s highest mountain, the Lake District is the perfect place to escape from daily distractions and to dive into exhilarating activities that the apprentices wouldn’t get the chance to experience in the office. For Thales, Outward Bound is a development activity that uses adventurous, challenging outdoor activities to focus on key skills that can be used in the workplace. The courses aim to inspire the apprentices to push themselves out of their comfort zones and challenge each other whilst focusing on setting goals, developing teamwork and improving communication skills. Many other skills will be developed to aid them individually, and collectively, in building strong working relationships within Thales. Each course lasts one week, Monday to Friday, and gives apprentices the chance to meet other Thales apprentices from sites all around the UK, creating a platform where personal development and networking are at the forefront.

For more information about the activities that Thales’s apprentices are involved in, follow us on Snapchat, which will give you an insight into a work life at Thales through our apprentices’ eyes, and the chance to challenge yourself with brain teasers. Find us @ThalesCareers.

Coming soon… meet some of this year’s apprentices. Keep a look out for the next article published to find out more about ‘a day in the life of a Thales apprentice’.