Just over 1,700 apprentices will be picking up their free toolkits valued at around £250 each on March 9 courtesy of leading work-based training company JTL and its partners Super Rod, Klein Tools and 3M for its electrical apprentices and Monument Tools for its heating and plumbing apprentices.
Electrical apprentices will be heading for their nearest City Electrical Factors branch to collect their toolkits and heating and plumbing apprentices will be heading to their plumbing merchant for theirs.
The toolkit give away is one of the differentiating benefits that JTL can offer to new apprentices and they are highly prized by the apprentices who have traditionally had to make their way through an apprenticeship with ‘hand me down’ tools from their employers or have had to scrape a toolkit together from their own resources.
The event will be the second major distribution of Klein toolkits to new apprentices in England and Wales, following the joint partnership between JTL, Klein Tools and Super Rod that was announced in 2015.
The relationship with Monument Tools goes back even further. Once again, Klein Tools will be running its #ToolkitThursday initiative asking every apprentice that collects a toolkit to send them a selfie with their new tools for a chance to win an even bigger Klein tool kit. Plumbing apprentices can enter a similar competition to win £600 worth of kit from Monument by tweeting a selfie and tagging #AskForMonument.
JTL chief executive, Jon Graham, said: “This is one of the initiatives that we believe contributes to our reputation in these sectors, and why we achieve apprenticeship success rates that exceed the national average by some way. It’s a generous gesture by our partners and we know from feedback that the apprentices see this as a highlight of their time working with us. Young people are far more likely to look after their own new toolkit than one that has been put together from older and worn tools.”
Malcolm Duncan, managing director of Super Rod, the sole distributor for Klein Tools in the UK, added: “This partnership with JTL has many mutual benefits for our organisations as well as for the new electricians entering the trade. For these new entrants to the industry to benefit from quality Klein Tools from the outset can only encourage these boys and girls to make extra effort to learn their trade and move on to become qualified and we hope, recognise the benefits of working with quality tools for the rest of their careers.”
Jamie Fisher, from Monument Tools, said: “We value the partnership with JTL and see the provision of these toolkits to heating and plumbing apprentices as a genuine investment in the installers and engineers of the future. We’re impressed by JTL’s desire to fill the skills gaps that undoubtedly exist with high quality young people and we see our involvement as making a contribution to achieving a well-qualified, highly motivated workforce in the years ahead.”
JTL is working with in excess of 3,250 employers across England and Wales, ranging from large multinational corporations, to sole traders in the building services engineering sector.