MITIE, the strategic outsourcing and asset management company, has taken its Real Apprentice participants to a local charity in South Ockendon, Essex, to help refurbish a community advice centre. 

The 13 apprentices took time out of their ten-week apprenticeships to refurbish a room at The Forum in South Ockendon, a community information and advice centre run by local charity South Ockendon Community Forum. 

Each year as part of MITIE’s Real Apprentice programme, an employer-led training scheme designed to get people back into work, the apprentices complete a community challenge. As MITIE have been supporting ‘The Forum’ for several years, it was suggested that the apprentices could help by designing and redecorating a multi-purpose room used by The Forum for many of its activities. The apprentices were tasked with the planning, design and redecoration and were supervised by trained painters and decorators from MITIE who also supplied all the materials. 

This year, MITIE has adapted its Real Apprentice programme to accommodate people with a physical, cognitive or mental health disability. After spending an induction week learning about the skills needed to work for MITIE, the apprentices undergo a ten-week on the job training course at one of MITIE’s client sites and could be learning about anything from catering to administration or carpentry, working under the supervision of MITIE’s trained experts.

Jane James, employment and regeneration director for MITIE, who helped to organise the community day commented; “It was great to get the apprentices involved in something like this, it gives them an invaluable experience that not only boosts their confidence, but gives them transferrable skills to take elsewhere in the workplace. Community challenges are an important part in the Real Apprentice scheme as it teaches the apprentices to work as a team to complete the challenge and shows that they can make a difference to the community.” 

Jan Kellythorn from ‘The Forum’ was delighted with the results: “It was great having the apprentices here for the day, they got on well and completed the task in a professional manner. The room is now a much more appealing place and we look forward to hosting events there during the coming months, especially in the run up to the festive season.” 

For further information, contact: 

David Revis, Marketing and PR Manager, MITIE Facilities Management
T: 020 7089 7150 M: 07979 702465, E: david.revis@mitie.co.uk

Notes for editors

What is MITIE?
We’re the strategic outsourcing and asset management company.

What does that mean in practice? Providing everything from strategic consultancy, to world-class delivery on the ground. From long-term infrastructure planning, to facilities management, property and engineering services. Our strategic input can add value at the highest level, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and maximise their returns.

At the same time, it’s not just what we do, but how we do it that makes us different. Our people are passionate about what they do, committed to working in partnership with their clients, and will always look for a fresh answer to a new challenge.

We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise by buying the whole suite, others may only need one aspect of what we do:

Strategy and consultancy

+ Facilities and project management

+ Service delivery

In other words, we think, we manage, and we deliver.

The thinking phase is all about finding strategic answers to long-term challenges about assets and resources. Facilities and project management puts those plans in place, and our unrivalled range of services is one of the best in the business.

There’s a lot more to MITIE than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions - a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 50,000+ people, revenues in excess of £1.5bn, and a reputation for being the best.