Fort Vale values apprentices

INVESTING IN YOUTH

PEOPLE • GRAHAM BLANCHARD, FORT VALE’S HEAD OF GLOBAL SALES AND MARKETING, EXPLAINS WHY TRAINING APPRENTICES IS A VITAL PART OF THE COMPANY’S ETHOS

HERE IS A simple fact: of the six directors at Fort Vale Engineering, half of them began their working lives as apprentices with the company - myself included. This is by design rather than accident, and has always been an integral part of our company methodology - or as we prefer to call it, the ‘Fort Vale approach’.

The company was founded in 1967 by a young engineer called Ted Fort, who had an idea for a valve for the heating industry. Fast forward 50 years and Ted now has an OBE and a company that employs over 600 workers globally. It is Ted’s passion to encourage young people to forge careers for themselves within the industry that has paved the way for Fort Vale’s continued success over the years.

It’s an approach that has paid us dividends over the years, as it would for any company following a similar path. It is an incontrovertible truth that the young represent the future for all of us, so if we want a prosperous, dynamic, forward-looking industry, it makes sense to provide proper training and opportunities for them.

The development of young people is fundamental to our business strategy - with over 40 years of experience working with apprentices, we can offer the guidance, training and personal growth they are looking for. We give them the skills and training which would make them an asset to any company in the world. However, we also offer them the support and opportunities to stay and progress within the company should they choose to.

BRING IT ON Our apprentice program guides the next generation of workers, giving them the tools they need to become leaders themselves - this development of our people brings continuity of the Fort Vale approach, ensuring consistent support and service to our customers for years to come.

For example, if an apprentice joins our programme, they will be able to earn a good wage, learn on the job and gain the necessary qualifications to further their careers. They will be able to train in our specialist Training Facility, with a dedicated Apprentice Training Manager, working on the very latest machine tools. I can speak from personal experience here, because this is exactly how I started out.

After leaving school at 16, I was taken on as an apprentice and subsequently qualified as a mechanical engineer. Encouraged by the company, I then decided to widen my horizons and progressed to design engineer, then project engineer, before becoming Works Manager. At the end of 2018 I was promoted again to European Sales Director, before being made Global Sales & Marketing Director in 2020.

Now that is not the typical career progression for a 16 year-old, but it does sum up what I believe makes Fort Vale different - opportunity. For a youngster to be given the chance to expand their horizons shows faith in their ability that will be repaid over and over again - initially to the benefit of the trainee, and subsequently to the benefit of the organisation and its workforce. It’s an ethos that pervades every level of the company - that the best way to lead is from the front, that setting an example is to be encouraged - by being leaders, not followers.

It’s the Fort Vale approach. www.fortvale.com

FORT VALE BELIEVES STRONGLY IN GIVING YOUTH A