Hub Support

With well over 30 years of experience, ISF has long envisioned to become a leading provider of engineering solutions for the animal feed market in the UK. The business has made tremendous strides and continues growing, and with the help of The Apprenticeship Hub, the team has broadened their offer of engineering recruitment and established new career paths for York apprentices.

Full of ambition, ISF first got in touch with The Apprenticeship Hub looking for helpful advice on how to start their apprenticeship journey from scratch, as an effort to tackle the concerning shortage of talent in engineering recruitment.

“They gave us advice on how to advertise the positions, and on what we needed to set up to make sure we’re meeting any legal requirements taking on apprentices,” said Quality Manager Laura Palmer-Hukins.

She also commented on how The Apprenticeship Hub team offered the company valuable Mentorship Training sessions, designed to give those working alongside apprentices the confidence and knowledge necessary to best guide new talent, for the benefit of both parties.

“I think the whole experience of working with The Apprenticeship Hub has been really positive,” Laura continued, “it was easy to approach them, and they’ve been super friendly every step of the way.”

What ISF remembers the most from this experience with the team was the ease and straightforwardness of the entire process, and how even the most complicated steps of the apprenticeship journey were made simple and tailored specifically to their needs. “They’ve been really good at explaining things in a way that made it so straightforward and brought to life the paths that were relevant to us.”

Thanks to a strong company vision of career development, innovation and creativity, ISF has always held a place of authority in their sector. However, working with The Apprenticeship Hub allowed the team to transform the way they think about their own skills too.

“They helped us feel like we were in a good place to start apprenticeships, because what you don’t want is to take on an apprentice and not actually have the skills necessary to develop them,” said Laura.

“We want to know we’re doing everything we can to support our apprentices.”

Find out more about The Apprenticeship Hub’s work with ISF and other employers. 

The Apprenticeship Hub is part funded by the European Social Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020, and is delivered in Partnership with Calderdale College, North Yorkshire Council and East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

To find out more about recruiting and retaining staff, head to our skills page or watch our recruitment webinar playlist.