The Northern Region unionlearn has been supporting Caterpillar Peterlee and the recognised union, Unite, for several years, helping to entrench the learning agenda and by promoting the importance of the health and wellbeing of the workforce. Supporting the Apprenticeship agenda has been a fundamental part of that work.  A partnership approach has led to continual improvements in the quality of the Caterpillar Apprenticeship programme.

In November 2014, the company and the union felt the time was right to rubber stamp the high quality programme and effective partnership model, by signing the unionlearn Apprenticeship Charter. The Charter sets out the key components of a high quality Apprenticeship and is an indicator that young people will receive a high quality learning experience.

The charter contains key provisions relating to fair pay, trade union involvement in the programme and commitments to ensure young people receive high quality training. It is also a commitment from both the employer, union and unionlearn that there will be an ongoing drive to continually monitor and improve the quality of the programme.

Ken Gyles, senior Union Support Officer said:

I was delighted that Caterpillar Peterlee committed to the signing of the apprentice charter. Unite and Management, working together, are always developing better ways to ensure that apprentices get quality training at the Peterlee depot. This will guarantee that apprentices in Peterlee get the structure and support to enable Caterpillar to grow and train young adults for the future of their workplace”

Rennie Simpson, Unite convenor at Peterlee said:

The union were actively involved in the re-introduction of apprenticeships at Caterpillar Peterlee. We believe that the Apprentice Charter formulated by the TUC is an excellent guideline to achieve our aims of supporting our apprentices in training, fair treatment and continuous improvement in moving forward.”

Chris Fairs, HR Manager at Caterpillar, said:

We have been working with Unite over a number of years at Caterpillar Peterlee to develop an apprentice programme that is credible and meets our business requirements; we believe that the apprentice charter supports the work that we have been doing.”