KNAPP UK Ltd has hired a further two technical apprentices for its Customer Support team. The new recruits – Amy Coltman, 18, and Sam Haynes, 19 – are working as part of KNAPP’s resident engineering team at the national distribution centre of British Gas in Leicester.
Commented Ebb Kretschmer, Head of Customer Service for KNAPP UK, “Following the success of our first two apprentices – who were employed at the facility of our client, shoe supplier Clarks – we decided to initiate a further two apprenticeships. As we now have contracts for resident service teams with five major clients in the UK, we need to ensure that we have sufficient skilled engineers to meet the needs of their automated handling and storage systems. We’re finding apprenticeships to be a great way of plugging the skills gap that exists in the market today.”
Glyn Williams, Supply Chain General Manager at British Gas, said, “We are delighted to be actively involved in training young people with new skills, as well as putting something back into the local community by way of the apprenticeship scheme at our Leicester site.”
KNAPP is also training technicians through its ‘mature improver’ scheme, under which a technician with the necessary core skills – such as mechanical engineering – can be trained externally in other skills, such as electronics or pneumatics. “There are significant advantages of both the apprenticeship and mature improver schemes for us and for our customers,” continued Ebb Kretschmer, “and more companies in the logistics industry should consider this route because the demand for places is high – our latest apprentices were selected from about 100 applicants.”
In addition to its teams at British Gas and Clarks, KNAPP UK has resident engineers at the distribution facilities of John Lewis, The Co-operative Pharmacy and Boots.
KNAPP UK Ltd
Mr Craig Rollason,
Head of Sales & Marketing
Tel: 01844 202149
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