With National Apprenticeship Week kicking off, we asked Ryan, one of our recent apprentices to reflect on the programme:
“One thing that’s surprised me about the job I am doing is how much freedom you get. In the sense that you get services to do and you get to travel around the country to do them. I knew about the travelling because of my father working for the company but it is amazing the amount of places you get to visit, you get to go to places you’ve never heard of before.”
“I now have the confidence to perform services myself and if there has been an issue on the clock I know how to fix the problem.”
Ryan (right) pictured with his dad, Tony.
“I joined Smith of Derby in June 2021, starting an Apprenticeship in Clockmaking with them. There are a couple reasons as to what led me to join. One is due to me doing an internship with the company when I was at school. I learnt how it runs and that it’s a company I would be proud to work for. My dad working with the company also had a massive impact on my decision as he has always told me how good it is and how different the job is to other jobs, in the way of the niche market. And the massive variety in the way of you being somewhere different every day.
I’ve received training in clock servicing and installation, in the Clockworks, in the Training Room, but mainly being out on site with different clockmaker engineers, doing hands-on work, on dials and auto-winds and so on. I’ve been able to put a lot of what I’ve learnt into practice. I now have the confidence to perform services myself and if there has been an issue on the clock I know how to fix the problem.
One of the projects I have worked on has been the Chamberlain Clock at Birmingham University, known as Old Joe. This was very interesting as I helped install the refurbished dial works and hands. We had to go up on a hoist on a crane to about 80 meters ion the air as the tower is 100 meters.
The advice I’d give to anyone thinking about an apprenticeship is make sure to take everything on board this is as with this line of work it is very complex so everything you learn, little or large, it really does help.”
If you’d like to learn more about the Clockmaker apprenticeship opportunities available at Smith of Derby, do get in touch with us, emailing Jane.betts@smithofderby.com to find out more
