Inspiring the next generation

We believe in supporting future generations into employment and developing in-house talent. That’s why we support work experience and apprenticeships.

In February 2020, we were approached by Sean, a student from a local high school, who’s grandmother works at Liberty.

He was interested in doing some work experience to learn more about what a career with Liberty would be like.

Sean was inspired to consider a career as an electrician by members of his family who already work in various trade roles. So we teamed him up with our electrical team based in Knowsley for a week of on the job, first-hand experience during his school’s February half term.

During the week Sean was mentored by Mark Watkin, Electrical Supervisor, and worked daily alongside Colin Leader, a qualified electrician.

Sean said: “On my first day, after being inducted into Liberty and learning the necessary health and safety rules I was given a Liberty uniform, and I really felt the part.

“The first job we visited was to fit a heating controller to a boiler which a gas engineer had installed earlier in the day. Colin had to fit the controller and fully wire up the unit so that it worked. He talked me through what he was doing at each step and encouraged me to take notes and photographs so that I could refer to them later in the week if we attended a similar job.

“We visited a few different jobs through the week, including fault finding on various electrical circuits and installing a 6mm twin and earth PVC/PVC cable to a low level cooker outlet and producing the correct NICEIC certification.

“On some jobs Colin tested what he’d been teaching me. Asking me to check my notes, and refer to wiring diagrams that he’d shared on similar jobs to see if it could work out where the wires were meant to go before he did it.

“The variety of what we were doing was really interesting to me, and Colin and Mark were really inspiring. I learnt a lot about what life as an electrician could be, and I really liked how the electricians and other trades work together as part of a team to get the job done. Knowing I was part of the team made it a very enjoyable experience.”

“Doing this week of work experience has made me even more determined to become an electrician once I finish my GCSEs, and I hope I can come back to Liberty as an apprentice to get my qualifications”