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Case study
Client: ETL Systems, Hereford
Service: Training
Background
ETL is a growing company that designs and manufactures radio frequency (RF) satellite communication
equipment (ground segment) for the global commercial and defence markets.
With an annual turnover of c£10million and around 90 people employed mainly at ETL’s purpose built
facility in Madley, Herefordshire, ETL is the UK’s market leader. Other sites are based in Watford, Dubai
and the USA.
The company’s purpose-built facility includes design, assembly and test capabilities, covering software
and hardware design. Printed circuit board (PCB) pick and place and final assembly are done in-house and
all equipment is fully tested. ETL has been awarded ISO 9001 accreditation.
ETL’s customers include broadcasters, governments and telecoms companies and range from the BBC and
CNN through to leading satellite operators, Eutelsat, and Reuters news agency.
ETL has been designing and manufacturing RF equipment since 1984. The business has substantially
benefited and developed since a management buy-in undertaken in 2003 by Ian Hilditch and Dr Esen
Bayar. As a consequence of their clear passion and drive, the business has achieved great growth and in
2013 received a third Queen's Award for Enterprise in recognition of its impressive growth in
International Trade.
Staff retention levels at ETL are very good, but with ambitious plans for future growth it’s imperative that
the business is able to attract and retain the right people to achieve its objectives.
Approach
In addition to its well-established graduate training programmes, ETL Systems has for several years been
recruiting apprentices. These are placed in various disciplines throughout the business and include two
Business and Administration (Level 2) apprentices from Hoople.
Apprentices are seen as a critical part of the company’s future growth strategy, providing an important
source of talent that can be moulded to suit the ethos and culture of ETL.
Results and benefits
The main benefit to ETL Systems is that apprentices are great for future growth aspirations, providing a
rich seam of talent to help the company reach its ambitions to double in size in terms of staff numbers
and revenue by 2019.
There are huge benefits too for the apprentices themselves. All ETL’s apprentices are allocated a ‘buddy’
to help them with their learning and to assist in integration with the rest of the team. They are gaining
practical, on-the-job experience with a high-tech international business that will stand them in good stead
for their future careers. In fact, so far all ETL’s apprentices have been offered and have accepted
permanent positions with the company at the end of their apprenticeship programmes.
As far as the relationship with Hoople is concerned, ETL has been impressed. So much so that they are
planning to recruit a further two Hoople apprentices in the near future.
What the client said
The cli says:
Jess Stone, Human Resources Manager, says:
“Hoople fully understood the job role and behavioural characteristics we were looking for in our
apprentices. We had been struggling to find the right apprenticeship provider, but Hoople really hit the
mark and have been brilliant in keeping us updated and fully informed. Hoople’s flexible approach and
ability to offer apprenticeships at any time throughout the year has also been extremely valuable.”