Pirelli is supporting the Apprenticeship Charter from Unite and TUC as part of its on-going commitment to ensure apprentices have the support they need to progress and develop in the workplace. 

Pirelli signed the Apprenticeship Charter at their Carlisle facility in front of members from Unite, TUC and Cogent as well as a selection of current Pirelli apprentices and managers within the engineering, maintenance and quality departments. 

Apprentices have been a long-standing tradition within Pirelli UK and that fact remains so as the Italian tyre manufacturer continues to support young Britons at both UK facilities in Burton and Carlisle. 

The Pirelli apprenticeship scheme has been running for more than 40 years and currently focuses on two areas of the business – quality and maintenance. The quality apprenticeship develops people for management and supervisory positions within the company, while the engineering apprenticeship is a little more hands on. While some of these apprentices become craftsmen, others progress through the company to fill positions at all levels and within many different areas of engineering. 

Pirelli is committed to developing all apprentices within the company and providing them with a foundation to grow with the brand through extensive training, development and support, and those who are part of the scheme are earmarked for future roles and often go on to managerial and supervisory positions, and even move on to become directors and senior executives within various areas of the business. 

Pirelli invests a lot in apprentices both from a financial and time point of view. At the end of the apprenticeship each comes away with a recognised qualification and a strong set of skills. Almost 100% stay with the company after their apprenticeship and some employees who joined the scheme have now been at the company for over 40 years. They have gone on to travel the world and hold senior positions within the company. 

Andrew Cross, Pirelli HR Manager commented:

Pirelli continues to be very committed to the vision of high quality apprenticeships as part of its investment into the future growth of the business, which is why we have decided to sign the Apprenticeship Charter. All our apprentices do a real job, around 10% of the workforce in the engineering department are apprentices, and we couldn’t function without them. We believe they should all be supported in order to reach their full potential." 

Tony Burke, Unite Assistant General Secretary, responsible for manufacturing said:

Unite is committed to ensuring that UK manufacturing does not suffer skill shortages and also to encourage young people to take up top quality, gold standard apprenticeships. By signing the Apprenticeships Charter, Pirelli is demonstrating a long term commitment to the industry and UK manufacturing. We hope this will set an example to other companies in the area and industry and shows that there are benefits for both employers and employees by working together."

Ken Gyles from unionlearn added:

Unionlearn have worked with unite and Pirelli for many years and we are delighted that they have signed the charter and continue to put quality of training at the very top of their agenda."