Well March and April 2020 it was nice knowing you…extremely well, too well!
I wanted to write a blog to share with you some of the ways that SWAC have dealt with lockdown, from that initial moment of worry to feeling a lot more calm about how our business will cope. We would also like to be able to look back in a few years and have that reminder that we must not be too hard on ourselves as a business, that we should not look back at this time and think ‘we should have done that’ or ‘we could have finished that’. Yes, while we did have time to stop and think we were also spending all our time, and we still are, using this time to support our apprentices.
In mid March, when we started hearing the news of other countries going into lockdown we still went into our office, taking extra care to wash our hands more often but not expecting the huge changes that were about to hit us. Less than a week later, the office was closed and we were all now working from home. Whilst like everyone out there we were adapting to the change our first priority was our apprentices and what was happening to them. Instantly (and we mean super quick) a plan is in place, all our our brains working at what felt like 100 mph. So many questions, What are our apprentices going to do? How will they cope with change? How will their qualifications be affected? Having over 50 apprentices with different host employers we needed to understand quickly what the situation was with each of them and were they okay both mentally and in a work capacity.
A plan was very quickly in place, the Furlough scheme had been announced and our mastermind Operations Manager Shelley, had fully understood every aspect of this (we are pretty sure she learnt the new policies off by heart!). Before this support was announced we, like most small businesses were really worried how this would affect us and our future. How ever, we knew that first and foremost the 50+ apprentices were our priority. We set about contacting them all and understanding what their own individual work situation was, were they still in an office or working from home and were they happy and feeling okay about this. We answered a lot of questions and had a few who were understandably quite nervous and worried and it was important for us to reassure them that we were here and will be throughout this period of lockdown, how ever long it may be. We answered their questions, we spoke to their host employers and also training providers to establish how their apprenticeship could continue, if of course this was possible. What we found, and we were not surprised at all is that everyone had quickly adapted and we all had a plan!
We also had apprentices who had only been in their role for a couple of weeks, what a start to your first full time job! They were now all of a sudden working from home and in a new role, not the office they were expecting …We have ensured that these apprentices are getting a call from us every day, even if it is just for a chat as we know that working from home can be hard even for the more experienced of us but when you have only just started your job this is a totally different experience.
Keeping in touch with our apprentices has been our most important role, we have called, text, emailed and zoom’ed! as much as they need us too and we are on the end of the phone if they need us more. We as experienced people have found this situation tough and ourselves on the same emotional ‘Coronacoaster’! We have been amazed and not totally surprised at the resilience and positive attitudes of these young people, they are a credit to the host employers they work for and we are confident that they will all be able to look back at this time as an example of how they have worked in the face of adversity.
As well as our apprentices out there with different host employers, we have an employee who was our apprentice not that long ago.This is her first full time job and Alice has proved herself to be a superstar! We now have furloughed staff which means we have taken on different roles to those we would normally do and as we would have expected Alice takes this all in her stride with a great big smile!
It has been a strange and worrying time for everyone and will continue to be so for some time to come, we do not know what the future holds, but what we can be sure of is that we are proud of how our apprentices have coped and how we as a business adapted in such a short space of time. We will look back at this time and not beat ourselves up for not doing more but be solid in the knowledge we did everything that we could.
We look forward to getting back out there soon, but in the meantime stay safe everyone! 🙂
If you have any questions about apprenticeships, whether you are currently an apprentice or looking to apply for roles soon, or even considering to recruit please do not hesitate to get in touch we are more than happy to talk through things with you.
