Picking up skills on-the-job with learner, Jay Welch

Jay Welch, 16, has recently started his apprenticeship journey and is learning his trade as part of a maintenance service funded by Realise charity.

He works with his supervisor Alex, carrying out maintenance jobs and gaining work experience ready for an apprenticeship. Day to day he delivers a service from PM Training to help maintain charity shops for the Donna Louise Trust and Douglas Macmillan Hospice across the area. 

Jay said: "I've been at PM Training since November 2019. I'm really enjoying it. My supervisor, Alex, has been great. I've learnt loads from him in such a short amount of time. We've done loads of jobs for Donna Louise, Dougie Mac and Aspire Housing. Things like fitting wooden panels, curtain rails, grab rails, painting, gardening, door adjustments flooring and more. Before I came to PM Training I wouldn't have had a clue how to do any of those things."

Learning on the job

Since leaving school Jay knew he wanted a career which allowed him to build his skills on the job. He didn't like the idea of learning in classrooms and exams, so joined PM Training following a recommendation from a family member.

Jay continued: "We've been working on a really good project for Aspire Housing at the moment which is a room renovation. It's a great experience for me to be able to learn how to decorate a room. We had an apprentice as part of the team too, which was great as she was able to give me advice on the best tools to use for the job. I quite like the idea of a future career in electrics. That's something I've enjoyed learning about so far."

Future progression

Jay's learning journey is setting him up to progress. He's gaining new skills and developing his understanding of employer expectation around attitude, behaviors and attendance. His supervisor Alex Tildesley, certainly thinks so, he said: "Jay is such a great asset to my team, he's a quick learner with a fantastic worth ethic. I know he's going to do really well in his future apprenticeship."

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