Spectris : encouraging apprenticeships to overcome the digital skills gap

One of the brilliant things about working in technology is the many routes in to and through your dream career. In 2021, inspired by the Spectris Foundation's purpose, objectives and ongoing commitment to STEM, the Group IT team looked into how we could provide young people with the opportunity to get their proverbial foot on the corporate ladder.

After great feedback from Rory Kemp, who enjoyed a four-week summer internship with the cyber security team in 2021, we embarked on our apprenticeship journey. GK Apprenticeships helped us to ensure that we have the right structure in place and to give our apprentices the best experience possible - to combine on-the-job training with formal certifications.

While the pandemic has presented many challenges to young people looking for work, we saw the opportunity of remote working to allow us to advertise across the whole of the UK. After reviewing more than 200 applications and interviewing really talented young people, we welcomed Matt Smith and Dave Rolfe to the team in October 2021.

"Addressing the global skills shortage in cyber security and the digital skills gap more broadly is something that's really important to us," says Anna-Lisa Miller, Group CISO, "The pandemic highlighted this and really showed us how vital apprentices are. I'm absolutely delighted with the progress we've made so far, but there's still lots to do!"

Having spent a few months getting to grips with working in cyber security at Spectris, the feedback from our apprentices has been encouraging, "my onboarding was a very smooth process. Spectris were very accommodating with my location and gave me the opportunity to have my interview online. The team made me feel welcome and really made the experience great for me!" says Matt Smith.