2504TClarke Apprentice of the Year 2019 : Meet the finalists

TClarke Apprentice of the Year 2019 : Meet the finalists

29/5/19 : TClarke’s resource pipeline is secured by our nationwide apprentice scheme. While our industry targets 5% as the goal for the percentage of the workforce in apprenticeship or full time training, we achieve 13%. Our Apprentice of the Year competition is a major event and with every finalist securing entry to our Young Leaders programme, it delivers significant career opportunities. Group MD Mike Crowder introduces this year’s finalists:

Callan Baker works with our multi-award winning Bank Station Capacity Upgrade team, within our Infrastructure Business. He is a final year electrical apprentice and was nominated by Ross McDonald.

From our Newcastle business we have Joe McNally. Joe is another electrical apprentice, nominated by Andy Dunne and looking to move into site supervision and then beyond.


Emma Nichols, from the South West team is another high performer who has already won a regional apprenticeship award and was nominated by South West MD, Rob Faro.

The fourth finalist is Jack Warren, a plumbing apprentice from our Scotland business, who John Boyle nominated. Again, he has an exceptional work ethic and has shown the kind of qualities we prize at TClarke.

A conveyor belt of talent that protects us from skills shortages

This year, just like every year, TClarke offers apprenticeships across the UK. These are very high quality, delivered to our high standards with very longstanding partners and educational institutions we trust. 

We don’t leave our apprentices to fend for themselves, we have a professional and highly experienced internal training and development team that manages and takes care of our apprentices as they proceed. 

Wherever they are based in the UK, the same level of support for each apprentice ensures that they keep focused, keep motivated and get to their goal. This care and support is extremely important in helping us to achieve apprentice retention rates which, again, are far ahead of industry averages. 


High-quality people with the potential to become our future leaders

One of the key reasons we win work is because clients know that TClarke is a quality operation with real leadership onsite and in the office at every level. That leadership also comes with motivation to deliver, a constant focus on safety and a willingness to collaborate. So frontline leadership is a major business advantage for us.

If you understand that, you can understand why we take so much trouble with this competiton each year – it means a lot ot us. I was myself a TClarke apprentice, so were many of my management colleagues. 

This competition once again gives us four young people with exceptional potential and what each of them has already shown is the aptitude and determination to create their own future. 

They know that TClarke offers them career paths that can take them all they way – in whatever direction they choose. Callan, Joe, Emma and Jack are great advertisements for our business and a credit to themselves – I wish them all very good luck on Friday!