Here at AO, we’ve been dedicated to engaging the minds of as many young adults as we can to catapult us into the future with a youthful edge. By helping young people create their future, we in turn mould our own; everyone’s a winner.
This is exactly why we’ve invested so much into the Future Talent initiative at our National Distribution Centre in Crewe.
We’re on a mission to bring the exciting world of AO Logistics alive. We won’ stop until every school and college leaver in Cheshire is banging on our door asking us to be instrumental in their next venture. We are educating, inspiring and ultimately changing lives with mission to make you happy and fulfilled in your career.
So do you think it’s impossible to be happy at work?
We don’t think so. In fact, every single apprentice who has completed their course with AO Logistics has gone on to gain permanent work or a promotion within our company. If you attend any event with us, or get involved in any school project organised by AO, then you’ll have met one of our Apprentices and you will see the way they talk about their career with pride and enthusiasm.
So let’s see what AO have been up to during our busiest careers season yet…
We won awards!
In 2018, we entered AO Logistics into the South Cheshire Chamber Awards and brought home three trophies for Employer of the Year, Contribution to the Community and Young Leader of the Future for our Commercial Manager Adrian Webb.
Since then, The Cheshire College south and west held their annual Apprenticeship Awards and two of our employees were named Apprentice of the Year in their course subject. Well done to Becky (Quality Apprentice) for winning Business Admin Apprentice and Martin (Inventory Supervisor) for winning Higher Apprentice of the year.
The best part? There is still more to come!
We’ve entered into the School Leaver Awards, Rate My Apprenticeship and Talent in Logistics awards, so look at their websites to see how we do in the coming months.
We went BIG!
We’re joining the revolution to encourage young people into careers in STEM by helping students to take part in The Big Bang@ IMHX 2019. For the first time ever, we are coaching and mentoring local engineering and technology students from Crewe UTC to help them enter this national competition. We’ve challenged students to help us to improve a key element of our returns process, with winners to be announced on September 29th 2019.
We also decided to offer the same school some marketing project experience, complete with a chance to “pitch” their marketing ideas to some of our employees, including our Managing Director and Head of External Communications!
AO Logistics Apprentice Challenge
2019 has seen the fourth annual AO Logistics Apprentice Challenge, which was bigger and better than ever, with new schools asking to be signed up and more students participating than any year before. The students split into groups to help solve a real time business challenge, and were mentored all day by our very own apprentices and employees who dropped in to check on their work. We have since received some tremendous feedback from the schools and even parents, who wanted to “thank the staff at AO for inspiring a 15 year old boy, which isn’ easy!”
We expanded our support
For the last two years, we’ve supported The Princes Trust and Career Ready in their inspiring missions to improve the lives and employability of young people across the UK.
Since 2018, we’ve thrown ourselves wholeheartedly into the Career Ready programme in Staffordshire, with a total of nine members of the AO team from Crewe involved in mentoring, masterclasses, workplace visits and work placements. We have also been regular supporters of The Princes Trust Crewe teams, offering workplace visits, soft skills & interview skills workshops and work experience placements.
In addition to all of this, we continue to be avid supporters of the local schools and their efforts to raise the aspirations of young people in their care. From career fairs to confidence workshops, AO are there to challenge and engage young people, helping them to grow.
When it comes to raising the aspirations of our potential future workforce, we take a relentless approach. I think it’s safe to say that our Future Talent initiatives will only continue to grow.
Thank you to those schools and organisations who we partner with.
aoletsgo!