 | |  | | | Left to right: Seymour's MD, Andrew Berry, and Apprentice of the Year, Jonathan Willson | |
King of the castle
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| 05 May 2010
When Jonathan Willson bucked trends by leaving grammar school at 16 to start an electrical apprenticeship, little did he know it would prove to be such a successful decision. Ben Cronin travels to Louth in Lincolnshire to visit the most decorated apprentice in the country and his forward-looking employers, Seymour & Castle.
If Jonathan Willson carries on winning awards at his present rate, Seymour & Castle are going to have to build him a new trophy cabinet.
The sideboard as you enter the contracting firm’s Louth offices is creaking under the weight of the young electrician’s assorted cups, photographs and certificates, and his managing director, Andrew Berry, is beginning to find the whole thing amusing.
“He bought a ticket for a company raffle the other day and that was the moment I decided not to get one!’” says Berry. “He wins everything.”
The latest addition to the sideboard is the large cup the newly qualified 21-year-old picked up when he was named Best Apprentice 2009 at JTL’s National Awards Ceremony at the Tower of London. This followed hard on the heels of him winning the Apprentice of the Year 2009 at the Electrical Industry Awards, and that’s before he even mentions his other achievements in the four years he has been with the company.
“I was nominated for the ECA’s Frank Elliott Award in the first year of my training and I won that one,” says Jonathan, unassumingly. “Then I was named Third Year Apprentice for Nottinghamshire by the Employers’ Training Forum and JTL.”
EarmarkedIt’s quite clear that Lincolnshire’s answer to Sir Alex Ferguson is reluctant to crow about his achievements, but from talking with other people at the company it soon becomes apparent that he was earmarked at an early stage as someone who had the potential to go far. Maybe that owes something to a single-minded determination to pursue his goals, regardless of what anyone else advises him.
“I always knew I wanted to be an electrician and left school at 16 because I wanted to go down the practical route and get hands-on experience,” says Jonathan. “I went to a local grammar school in Horncastle and they took some persuading that this was the best route for me – in fact, it felt like I was breaking the mould. The majority of pupils there were planning to stay on for A-Levels with a view to going to university.”
So while his former classmates should, under the normal scheme of things, be exiting university this year, laden with debt and entering the most competitive job market in years, Jonathan has four years under his belt at Seymour & Castle and has developed the sort of skills that will pay dividends for both himself and the company.
“Last year I started to do jobs on my own and from that I moved into the office and began doing some estimating,” he says. “It’s a gradual progression and the college side ties in nicely and enables you to do more.”
InvestmentJonathan has of course had the good fortune to find a company which is prepared to make an investment in training, and for evidence of how far he can go, he need look no further than his boss, Andrew Berry.
“I was an apprentice here in 1977 when it took five years to qualify,” says Berry. “Now that Jonathan has qualified, he’s doing an HNC in business studies to help him understand the financial and contractual side of the business. We have three directors here and the plan now is for him to shadow them with a view to him taking over from them one day.”
Berry laments the fact that his company is having to be much more careful about contracts than it ever had to be in the past, particularly after having its fingers burnt on a couple of jobs, and the hope is that Jonathan’s training will help to insure the business against such eventualities in the future.
“In the past we never really read the small print on contracts, but recently when we were only a few days late with the O&M manuals on an M&E contract, the main contractors wanted to hit us for over £10,000,” he says. “You don’t do something like that again in a hurry, and Jonathan is getting that experience – his course includes a module on exclusion clauses and contract law.”
Berry admits that the increased incidence of legal wrangling and financial disputes is just a symptom of there being less work to go around and Jonathan has also been quick to notice the changed trading environment.
“We have noticed a drop off in work,” says Jonathan, who has spent the morning writing up an estimate for a local authority rewire. “It can be frustrating when you’re fighting for business and the price keeps coming down. You can try to win the work by being innovative, but there’s always someone who will try to do it for nothing.”
In light of these struggles, Berry thinks Jonathan’s successes as an apprentice have been a real shot in the arm for the company, bringing with them some welcome publicity and something positive to talk about with both old and new clients.
“Jonathan’s win at the National Training Awards was very emotional,” says Berry. “It came on the back of one of our worst years of trading for the company due to bad debts and was a wonderful reward for our investment in him.
“There’s a lot of attrition in training and young lads do develop at different rates, but you have to persevere. But what better way to help lay the foundations for the future success of your business and the industry? With a bit of luck you can get 25 years return on a four-year investment.” | |
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