Apprentices participating in XPO’s ‘Red Apprenticeships’ enjoyed a fabulous day of experiences, learning and challenges including high and low rope courses, Jacob’s Ladder and Crate Stack! The theme of the day was Personal Impact at work. Topics included identifying what the current perceptions of Apprentices in the workplace may be and how they may want that to be different. Though exercises and discussion, participants pinpointed specific responses and behaviours needed to have a greater positive impact and move the perception to what they wanted it to be!
Here are some of the Apprentices’ reactions:
“Following on from our afternoon talk and taking on board what was said in the discussion session afterwards, I have been more tolerant of others back at work.”
“I think since the course I have changed my attitude to working and to be more positive about work. I feel that I have also grown up a bit! My 19th Birthday was on Monday, I’m starting to realize that I’m no longer a child and I need to take responsibility of myself.”
“My workday is pretty demanding as the majority of the work is grafting and due to the environment it can be pretty stressful if something doesn’t go as planned. I find myself getting worked up over small things. I compared this to the task of stacking the crates as high as we could etc. By doing this, I figured the best solution to prevent myself from getting stressed would be to take a step back, think about what needs to be done where in order to make it more organised, whether it is a task that can be done by myself or with help, and most importantly not to over rush myself doing it as this would only cause more minor problems which would only make me get stressed more.”
Carl Burgess, an XPO Site Manager, had the following to say:
“I took four apprentices from West Hallam and one from Heanor to the Red Apprenticeships Development Day at Dunchurch Park Hotel. I couldn’t believe the difference in them when I picked them up later that day. They went down as individuals but came back as a team. They all said that they achieved more than they ever thought they could. It was also very noticeable how excited they were about XPO and the prospects and potential for the future!”
