Induction week for new
Apprentices
Unite the Union received a second invitation
to address the young apprentices on their induction weeks at
Gen ii, in the Cumbrian area.
Last year Unite – Jason
Beckett - supported the GMB on this quest of seeing around
120 apprentices at the Whitehaven – Energus site.
This year Unite was invited to attend these
events without GMB and the numbers had risen to 250 over three
sites; Energus (Whitehaven), Carlisle and Furness
(Ulverston). Jason Beckett and Dean
Briody attended 11 workshops over the three sites over
three days. As part of the apprentices’ induction a number of
workshops had been put on by Gen ii in partnership with providers
including such work shops as; Road Safety, IOSH and Trade Unions –
this Unite was happy to pick up.
We delivered disseminations to groups of
around 22 students for an hour at a time, scheduled in during each
day. The feed back and questions posed by the apprentices was
very positive and although we only discussed the benefits of being
a member of a trade union and didn’t hand out membership forms at
this point, the forms were requested at the end of each session by
members of each group – these apprentices would, following training
go to companies to include; Nestle, Innovia films, Calder
Foods, Crown Bevcan, McBrides, Pirelli and Furmanite Aero
to name but a few. - forms were then made very available and one
would estimate that an up take of around 40% took forms, knowing
where their placement would be and the recognised union at this
workplace.
