Education secretary meets WSP apprentices during National Apprenticeship Week

WSP has received a record number of apprenticeship applications this year, totalling 1500 across a variety of roles. Applications in the first two months of the year have surpassed its 2018 total, with months to go before the 2019 recruitment cycle completes in May.

Education secretary Damian Hinds, who met WSP apprentices at the start of National Apprenticeship Week, said: “It was fantastic to visit WSP today to kick start this years’ National Apprenticeship Week. We have transformed apprenticeships in this country and this wouldn’t have been possible without companies like WSP, who are leading the way by creating a wide range of high-quality opportunities for thousands of people across the country. It was great to meet all the staff and apprentices and I congratulate them all on the huge progress they have made and I look forward to hearing more about their work.”

Mark Naysmith, UK CEO at WSP, commented: “We are delighted by the growing interest in our apprenticeship programme.  Attracting future talent and skills into our industry is an ongoing challenge, however with the government’s support and the industry’s enthusiasm to promote exciting career opportunities, we are starting to witness success.  We put a lot of time into making sure our apprenticeships are of a high quality and well-structured, and that they set people up for exciting and varied careers to address future skill gaps.  

“Initiatives such as National Apprenticeship Week, as championed by the government, are a great opportunity to celebrate the positive contribution our apprentices are already making. More and more young people are discovering that apprenticeships offer a fantastic route to a career.  As the national demand for skills will only continue to grow, apprenticeships are good for people starting out in their careers and make good corporate sense too.”

The construction, planning and built environment sectors have seen a continuous growth in the number of apprenticeships since 2010. One of the early adopters in the industry, WSP has been taking on apprentices since 2010, and has seen hundreds of success stories over the years from its award-winning recruits. This year WSP is recruiting apprentices in civil engineering, building services, project management, transport planning, business administration, geo-spatial and quantity surveying. Working on some of WSP’s multidisciplinary, high-profile schemes such as High Speed 2, Network Rail and Highways England has also proved to be a big attraction for would-be recruits.