Kimpton, the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning specialists are encouraging businesses to utilise education at every level as they have, with work experience, apprenticeships, outreach work with schools and an internal culture of career-long learning
Central to the culture at the family-owned and operated company, is the long-established mix of developing staff from the ground up, offering apprenticeships, work experience, allowing employees to continually train and develop, and supporting the wider education system to bridge gaps and enhance knowledge while children are still at school.
The culture of continuing to train and giving opportunities for people to join the company has also been externalised, as members of the team are Liverpool City Region Enterprise Advisors, to ensure future generations in schools become aware of the breadth of career opportunities working for a company like Kimpton provides.
Of the 86 staff employed by Kimpton, 11 senior employees started as apprentices and have worked their way up to a combined 260 years at the company. A current apprentice, Grace Roberts is completing a HNC to become a Mechanical Estimator and also volunteers as Liverpool City Region’s youngest Enterprise Advisor supporting Prenton High School for Girls to deliver the Gatsby benchmarks. She also recently conducted a Careers Carousel alongside Business Development Manager, Matt Breakwell, at Leamington Primary School in Liverpool.
Grace commented “When I joined Kimpton, I was immediately impressed with the open culture which encourages innovation and new ideas, and when I was offered the opportunity to study my qualification and pursue a longer-term career with the company, I knew I wanted to. I’d encourage other women to consider a career in engineering as the growth in renewable technologies means the prospects are excellent.”
Matt Breakwell from Kimpton commented “Over the summer we are recruiting three more new apprentices and delivering a number of work experience placements to college students so that they can get valuable site experience in building services engineering. We’ve also hosted a work experience placement for a student from Pleasington High School, and in my role as a LCR Enterprise Advisor, I’ve seen how important it is for businesses to support schools to give students access to real-world experiences.
“As a business, we have always believed education and learning is not only the right thing to do but provides excellent opportunities to excel. Recruitment is tough and long-term plans to develop staff internally and provide outside opportunities to people, regardless of background to those who may not otherwise have considered a career in construction, additionally brings a competitive advantage. We urge other companies to look to education in every way possible, as it evokes a positive culture, and allows staff the mind space and want to be innovative and curious.”