Troup Bywater + Anders on making a difference for the 'lost generation'

Neil Weller, Partner at Troup Bywater + Anders, spoke to us about winning last year’s British Gas Medium Employer of the Year Award at the National Apprenticeship Awards and working towards making the engineering sector more inclusive...

How did you achieve the Medium Employer of the Year title? What makes your culture unique?

We employ 210 staff, 20% of which are apprentices and have just been recognised as a Platinum Investors in People. There is a real buzz and belief around apprenticeships at TB+A. For Partners at the business introducing apprenticeships was just a natural thing to do. They are a more traditional way of implementing engineering training and senior leaders believe it is the right way to bring people on and build up their skills, especially as most of us are former apprentices ourselves, including myself and our Managing Partner.

As a business, we are keen to ensure a supportive environment for all our apprentices. If an apprentice is struggling and needs more support either at work or in college then we can put this into place through their mentors. Additionally, if they fail an exam by a few marks for good reason we will fund their retake.