Prima’s Apprenticeship Program is a an extremely important and valuable recruitment process, allowing us to work with talented young, local individuals and develop career opportunities across all functions of our business.
As our 9th apprentice successfully completes their course and is offered a permanent contract, we asked Marcus to reflect on his time so far to understand what he feels he’s gained through the apprenticeship program, and how he sees his career progressing at Prima.
Marcus said “Over the past year I have been working at Prima as an Apprentice. In October I completed my apprenticeship qualification and I signed a contract which made me a permanent employee here at Prima.
During my apprenticeship I have gained some essential skills which will help me with my career at Prima. One of the key skills I have been working on over the past year in the Customer Care team is the correct way to deal with customers in any situation, be it different stake holders in the business or users of different levels. I have also learned how to present in front of customers, which involved delivering training at the Dublin User Group Meeting.
The main thing which makes Prima enjoyable for me is that everybody gets along and it is like a small family. When I first joined, I felt welcomed into the company instantly. I like how there is opportunities for everybody who works hard, with chances to progress within the company. It’s great to see so many young people moving up in the company.
In terms of my progression, I would like to explore the Onboarding process for new customers, I would like to gain more experience with this, as it is essential for my role to know how to deal with customers, and I believe the best way to learn is meeting with customers face-to-face, seeing our customers using Prima in real life situations. Similar in some ways, I would also like to explore the site visits and account management processes, this is for our existing customers who may require on site training or we arrange one to meet up and spend a day with them, I have found the site visits beneficial as this also helps build relationships with customers, something that’s really important to good customer care.
Prima have also encouraged me to continue learning and gain qualifications so I’m currently investigating suitable courses.
My focus is for the next 12 months to keep learning as much as I can and put myself in a position to be considered for any opportunities that may come up.”
Customer Services Director, Steve Dennis said “Apprenticeships have completely transformed the way we view employment. Going in to our 9th year as an apprenticeship provider with a 100% completion record is absolutely fantastic. The 2 key components to the success I believe, are
2. Have a really immersive program that gives real responsibility and opportunity to the apprentices so that they have the ability to develop their skills and see a career path here at Prima.”
