RAB Embraces National Apprenticeship Week & Celebrates Continued Successes
The 16th National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) is taking this week with a range of events, resources, and opportunities across the country.
The whole team here at RAB are fully aware of the benefits of apprenticeships both for the individuals and our business. Our first apprentice, Nathan Parsons, graduated with a first-class honours degree last year and we currently have four others working towards their degrees. We are also delighted to confirm our commitment to the apprentice training program for the foreseeable future. In fact, we are currently recruiting for a new Apprentice Civil Engineer. More details on this opportunity can be found here: https://rabconsultants.co.uk/vacancy/apprentice-civil-engineer-flood-risk-management-lichfield-or-bedford-based/
RAB became fully engaged with the program back in 2018, recruiting Nathan as our first ever apprentice. Russell Burton, our MD explains the initial rationale for embracing the apprenticeship scheme:
“We desperately wanted to ‘grow’ our own Flood Risk Engineers. Flood Risk and Drainage is a relatively minor aspect of a Civil Engineering degree, so we needed Engineers who could apply their engineering skills to solving hydraulic and hydrological problems. We saw the apprentice route as the best way of achieving that by combining the broader civil engineering academic skills gained at university with our ‘on the job’ training.
“Nathan fully embraced the concept, working on a wide range of actual flood risk and drainage projects including Flood Risk Assessments, Drainage Assessments, Flood Asset inspections and Property Flood Resilience (PFR) projects. This involved data collection and analysis, hydraulic / hydrological calculations, and project research. Nathan has also assisted in producing hydraulic models for unmodeled watercourses for flood risk assessments, using the Flood modeller Pro software.”
Nathan attended the University of Wolverhampton once a week as part of his degree course. He graduated last summer with a First in Civil and Transportation Engineering, and now has a permanent position in the team: “RAB supported me throughout the degree and helped me prepare for ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) Incorporated Engineer status. I only did the ICE interview last week, so don’t know the result just yet. If all goes well, I’ll be looking to plan my next steps to becoming a Chartered Engineer.”
Charlie Davies, Freya Green, Jessica Hipwood, and Jacob Longbottom are all currently on apprenticeship schemes at RAB while also working towards their degrees. Jessica is really enjoying the mix of academic studies and work experience training: “At RAB I have been welcomed and challenged within the projects and responsibilities that I have been asked to take on. The variety of different projects and the balance of site work and desktop work makes working enjoyable, and I am looking forward to continuing to complete my apprenticeship”.
Charlie is equally as enthused by the experience: “Being an apprentice at RAB offers a large range of opportunities across multiple sectors. This is highly beneficial in developing my knowledge and understanding of the role, and the training is directly transferable to my university work. As well as this, having a wealth of experienced colleagues who are always happy to share their knowledge is extremely helpful to my development.”
Full details of current apprentice opportunities at RAB can be found on our website: https://rabconsultants.co.uk/vacancy/apprentice-civil-engineer-flood-risk-management-lichfield-or-bedford-based/
