Edinburgh Napier University

I’m Douglas Turnbull, Continuous Improvement lead for Plexus in the UK.

What kind of work do Graduate Apprentices do in Plexus?

So when the Graduate Apprentice starts in plexus they do varied roles, they go through all the engineering disciplines in their first year to get an essential flavour for what's available and then they'll develop a skill set to find out what their niche is. They'll do product engineering, process engineering, continuous improvement engineering, they do some automation and robotics, as well as quality engineering.

And from that we'll find out where the needs of the business are going forward and what the apprentice has got the skillset for and from that will decide what they're going to specialise in for the latter three years of their apprenticeship.

What kind of opportunities do apprentices get?

In the business they get that varied experience. So, working through the different roles, different departments, and working with different people. They build up a network of engineering resources within the business. When they come to Napier, they're also developing relationships with fellow students.

What benefits do graduate apprentices bring to your business?

So they come with an open mind, so pretty much the first couple of years we would expect them just to be a sponge to soak up information from both the Napier academic piece and from the the Plexus piece so they get to understand all the different processes and how they can influence those process outputs

Have you seen a difference in Plexus since recruiting Graduate Apprentices?

Yes, we started Modern apprenticeships back in 2010, developing into Graduate Apprenticeships around 2019 and what we've seen is that the business retains most of the Graduate Apprentices we develop and lots of them are in senior leadership positions now. So, the core learning that they've got from their academic teaching has stood them in good stead for the future.

What do you think are the main benefits your Apprentices take from work and study?

The main benefits the apprentices take from work and study is they come with a different mindset in the first place. Probably the technology they’ve grown up with at school, using iPads for example, is probably different from what the engineers they’re working with grew up with, and so both sides learn from each other. So, if there's new technology then probably the apprentices will pick that up and be up and running with that fairly quickly, whereas it might take a seasoned engineer a lot longer to grasp the new technology. 
 
Would you recommend Graduate Apprenticeships to other businesses? 
 
Yes,  I would recommend Graduate Apprenticeships to other businesses.
So, from 2010 we've had the Modern Apprentices, leading on to Graduate Apprentices. We’ve even had some employees who had previously completed Modern Apprenticeships going on to do Graduate Apprenticeships with us too. We can see that our business has benefited from that and the retention is really good. We’ve pretty much kept all of those Modern Apprentices and we’ve always employed our apprentices after their course.

Does the Graduate Apprenticeship[ programme benefit your industry?

Yes, absolutely. We have a responsibility as a business to grow talent and to develop them for the future, we are already involved with various high schools in terms of STEM activities and the Graduate Apprentices are key to that as well because they can go into a school and be a relatable example of getting to see what can happen and where they can go as they're making their career choices going forward.
And so, it kind of leads on, it's that success breeds success.

What advice would you give to other organisations considering graduate apprenticeships? 

So the advice I would give to any other organisations is considering the apprentices is to go for it. Provided you can support the Graduate Apprentice then it’ll reap benefits in the long run.