Amey becomes The 5% Club's 300th member

15 Jun 2018

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Amey commits to 5% of its workforce in “earn and learn” positions by 2023 and encourages industry peers to do the same

Amey is proud to become The 5% Club’s 300^th member, pledging to work towards a minimum 5% of its UK workforce enrolled in “earn and learn” positions within five years. Earn and learn includes graduate and apprenticeship programmes and enabling existing employees to gain new qualifications through the apprenticeship levy.

The 5% Club is an employer-member organisation which encourages companies across industry sectors, and of all sizes, to support and adopt its ethos of embedding earn and learn in their organisation. Membership of The 5% Club shows that the member takes care of its employees and invests sustainably in skills for the future.

Amey - a leading engineering, consulting and infrastructure support services organisation - is reinforcing its commitment to widening the talent pipeline and attracting more young people into the business. It is also encouraging other organisations which rely on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills to do the same.

Andy Milner, Amey’s Chief Executive, says: “Much of the work we do requires using science, technology, engineering and maths to come up with innovative solutions for our customers. We already know the UK is experiencing a STEM skills shortfall and we’re unsure how that will change post-Brexit. If the UK is to remain competitive in a global market we all need to work together to attract as many young, talented people into the industry as possible.

We are pleased to join The 5% Club and cement our commitment to apprentices, graduates and to strengthening the skills of our existing employees. The apprenticeship levy offers organisations like Amey a great opportunity to develop our workforce, and our Emerging Talent team is working with our business units to identify new ways to do this. We would like to encourage our customers, competitors and industry peers to join us in supporting and growing talent, to secure the UK’s position as innovators in the world market.”

Amey currently has around 200 people on its Graduate Programme, with an intake of approximately 90 each year since 2007. Following the launch of Amey’s Apprenticeship Programme in 2010, more than 720 apprentices have joined the company’s ranks, with 164 currently on the programme. After the introduction of the government’s apprenticeship levy – a pot filled by all employers in England with an annual pay bill above £3m - over 80 of Amey’s existing employees have already opted to learn new skills and gain qualifications through levy funding. The company plans to further sustainably invest in its workforce and enrol 200 more people in new skills training in 2018 alone.

Amey’s environmental services business is using the apprenticeship levy to give over 150 employees the opportunity to develop their career skills, alongside their day jobs. These employees will have the chance to take on extra responsibilities and undertake sustainable resource management training or gain a level 2 LGV category C drivers licence. Nick Green from Solihull was keen to learn new skills to enable him to become a driver. He said: “I’ve been a loader for a while now and wanted to progress to the next step as a driver and take on the responsibility of being the crew supervisor too. It’s great that I’m able to learn a new skill and get a qualification while being at work.”

Lady Cobham, CBE, Director General of The 5% Club adds: “We are delighted to announce today that Amey is the 300th company to take up membership of The 5% Club. Five years after founding The 5% Club, this is a significant milestone for us to reach. We are proud to say that we are now made up of members from a wide range of industry sectors - from construction and engineering, to finance and professional services - all committed to the same important goal, aspiring to reach 5% of their workforce in earn and learn.

We very much look forward to seeing how our ethos of earn and learn is further embedded into Amey over the coming months and years. Earn and learn provides people with the opportunity to gain the skills they need to build long term careers, and importantly today, result in a strong and prosperous UK economy. We hope that other organisations will see this potential through Amey’s success and their mission to reach 5% of their workforce in earn and learn by 2023. This is a goal we ask all of our members to aspire to, as we believe that this is the most effective way to create a skilled workforce for the future.”

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