Iqbal Bahia, Kirkstall Precision: How benchmarking has benefitted our Apprenticeship scheme

Name: Iqbal Bahia
Position: Managing Director
Company: Kirkstall Precision Engineering

How has benchmarking as part of the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme benefitted you?

Benchmarking enabled us to draw a line in the sand and measure where we were at. We looked at that and looked at where we needed to be.

If you can’t measure something you can’t improve it, so the great thing was being able to benchmark our Apprenticeship scheme, so we could then further improve it.

Do you believe your Apprenticeships Scheme has improved since you have been involved in the Programme?

Absolutely. What it has made us do is to focus internally with what we are doing for our apprentices, and what the College is doing for us.

Even more so, the feedback that we received from the independent Survey (as part of the Kitemark Accreditation process) for our Apprentices was fantastic – both the good feedback and that which also gave us focus for further improvements.

How will having the Make UK Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Kitemark benefit your company?

We know there is a recruitment shortage in the market, and to try and recruit the best Apprentices we need to show them that we are committed. Kirkstall Precision Engineering having the Make UK Engineering Apprenticeships: Employer Kitemark shows these individuals that they are coming to a company that takes Apprenticeship training seriously.

Would you recommend other Engineering companies join the Engineering Apprenticeships: Best Practice Programme – and if so, why?

Absolutely I would recommend it. There is an engineering recruitment shortage, and we need to have a good talent pipeline. If you want to have a talent pipeline for the future, I recommend you join this Programme. By joining this Programme, it has made us benchmark what we are doing, it has made us focus more on what we can give the individual and how we can keep them for the future.

“If you want to have a talent pipeline for the future, I recommend you join this Programme”