When Ailsa Atkins and Beccy Lane formed Key Skills Recruitment, they had a vision.
“The organisation was created as an answer to what we were seeing in the industry around recruiters treating people as just a number,” explains Ailsa.
“At Key Skills we wanted to bring our values into the business. We have a personal and hands on approach across all our divisions, and it’s getting us great results…especially in our successful apprenticeship program.”
Key Skills is not your ‘run of the mill’ recruitment agency. The Wellington based outfit provides staff to construction and manufacturing industries on a temp and permanent basis and is also accredited by New Zealand’s Building Construction Industry Training Organisation as an apprentice holder. It’s an area Senior Recruitment Consultant, Josh Galuszka oversees with passion.
“It’s such a great and unique program. We focus heavily on guiding each individual through their own journey and recognise everyone has different goals,” says Josh.
Senior Recruitment Consultant, Josh Galuszka with Key Skills graduating carpenter, Wayne.
“We are developing an extremely talented and competent pool of tradespeople through our apprenticeship program. Part of our approach is to make sure our apprentices are placed across multiple businesses, so they end up with exposure to a variety of different working environments,” says Josh.
The ‘Key Skills’ strategy is ensuring apprentices learn a variety of different skills from clients across different specialties. It means when graduation day comes, they have the skills to tackle all aspects of their chosen trade with confidence, expanding their job prospects at the start of their career.
“Apprentices get a list of tasks that they have to tick off during their training and if they stay with the one company, particularly if it specialises in a niche area, they can miss out on experience across different aspects of a trade. It can make it tougher to place them in a permanent role when they graduate, says Josh.
“By placing our apprentices with various clients, we not only make sure everything gets ticked off, but we are able to widen their skill set and broaden their opportunities.”
While Key Skills takes on apprentices with all levels of experience, it has had the privilege of nurturing a number of graduates from start to finish. The organisation is selective of the clients it works with and strives to engage with companies that put people at the center of their operations.
“You've got to have clients with similar values and goals for the process to be successful, and we have brilliant clients. We work with company’s that have a passion to teach and mentor quality tradespeople,” says Josh.
“We have strong relationships with our clients and are able to communicate frankly and honestly about our apprentices’ ambitions. We are a bit like a mediator. We can be the voice that champions for our apprentices, while making sure our clients are getting what they want out of the program too.”
By developing apprentices, Key Skills is doing its part in helping to create a new generation of highly skilled tradespeople, amid a national skills shortage.
“It is so important to nurture our own homegrown pool of trades and technicians and we are proud that we can do that,” says Ailsa.
“During a downturn, New Zealand tends to look towards migrant labour to fill workforce gaps because we don’t have the numbers at home. We are working to increase those numbers and have the talent on our books. At the moment we have about eight apprentices, ready to learn and work. It’s a win for the individual, the client, and New Zealand.”