Pearce Hire continues investment in next generation
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The internship programme at Pearce Hire is headed up by Jim Brown, warehouse manager, and students are given the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience of working at the HQ of this busy rental production company.
Brown picks up the story: “This year there have been some new requirements set down for the students and their course work, and because we acknowledge the value the intern programme brings to Pearce Hire on a number of levels, then we were more than happy to adapt our structure to suit.”
As a result, throughout 2017, Pearce Hire has embarked on various initiatives to nurture young talent in the technical and event production industry. In the first instance, the company delivered a four-month rolling programme of one-week placements for over 20 first year students at PRC, who have each participated in 30-hours work experience. During these intense one-week placements the students gained a first-hand understanding of what happens behind the scenes of this extremely busy production and installation company; servicing and prepping kit, and working as fully integrated members of the team fulfilling warehouse and workshop duties.
“We have long lamented the limited availability of trained technicians coming into the industry so with this programme we’ve put our money where our mouth is and opened our company up to these enthusiastic, young ‘technicians in training’ to allow them to see what it is all about,” continues Brown. “Not only is there the CSR aspect to this initiative, more importantly we are helping to nurture the next generation’s talents, skills, and hopefully instil ‘best practice’ in the formative years of their careers.
“Frankly speaking, these short sharp week-long internships not only provide real-life experience for the students, they provide Pearce Hire with a number of ‘long format’ interviews where we can see the students in action, see how quickly they grasp things, what they show a real aptitude for, and see their potential as possible future team members in our close knit, hard-working team.”
The intern system created by Pearce Hire has paid dividends as permanent team members have joined following their intern experience in recent years. Dave Richardson – one of the very first interns to come to Pearce Hire from PRC, and an alumnus of the BTEC Extended Diploma in Music Technology course has been working at Pearce Hire for over four years and is a junior technician. Jake Langham is a more recent addition to the team and he brings an expertise in lighting following his graduation from the BTEC Level 3 Production Arts course.
For the past 18 months, Chris Mear has been part of the Pearce Hire team on an Electrical Installation Apprenticeship for one day a week, as part of his City & Guilds three-year course, and is currently part of the Hire department team whilst on a short hiatus from his apprenticeship.
Over Summer 2017, Pearce Hire also took on an international approach with its development of young technicians in the industry. Pearce Hire has a close working relationship with Amptown Cases in Germany, and for a fortnight in the summer, Amptown’s apprentice Bennet Liebermann joined the Pearce Hire team in Peterborough, gaining valuable insight into the workings of one of Amptown’s busy production customers. Bennet is currently in his final year of his business apprenticeship and was offered the opportunity as part of the ‘Erasmus +’ initiative which is a European Union funded programme running for 30 years across 33 participating programme countries.
The recent Production Futures event has resulted in yet another young addition to the Pearce Hire team. Jim Brown explains, “We exhibited at Production Futures for a second year running as it provides an excellent opportunity for us to meet students outside our immediate geographical area and talk about their aspirations in the industry. As a business, Pearce Hire is in a period of growth and we were looking to recruit a young, enthusiastic individual immediately – someone who was at the start of their career who we could invest in, and develop their pre-existing skills. It was here that we met Zack Batchelor, who actually lives locally to Pearce Hire and has now joined us in the role of lighting and rigging trainee.”
Shaun Pearce, MD of Pearce Hire concludes, “2017 was an exceptional year for Pearce Hire and we are delighted to have such an impressive group of young talent now imbedded in our team. We are looking ahead with great enthusiasm to 2018 and hope to celebrate another record year of business.”
(Jim Evans)
