From 9 - 15 February, National Apprenticeship Week returns to champion the remarkable achievements of apprentices across the country. This year’s theme, ‘Skills for Life’, highlights how apprenticeships nurture not only career-specific expertise but also the resilience, responsibility, and self-belief that underpin lifelong success.
At Chemring, we’re proud to spotlight the dedication and drive of our apprentices - individuals who choose a challenging path and consistently rise to meet it. In a world often focused on quick wins, our apprentices demonstrate the value of perseverance, showing up every day to build skills to help shape their future.
In fact, this year we’re looking ahead to our greatest-ever completion rate for apprenticeships on our Early Careers Programme (ECP) across Chemring. With 58 apprentices currently in the programme, 26 are due to complete their apprenticeships by the end of 2026.
We caught up with Alex from The Roke Academy, and Debbie, who co-ordinates and administers apprenticeships across Chemring and Roke, to find out what’s led to this upturn in the completion rate.
Explains Debbie, “Over the past year we’ve focused on providing more support for our apprentices through both face to face and online development sessions. We introduced quarterly early career clinics for all cohort members of our ECP. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) attend these in person clinics to talk to the apprentices about their area of business expertise. To date, the clinics have covered a range of subjects including vetting and security; the bidding process; product development; and defence and national security.”
Adds Alex, “This year we’ve aimed to bring the learning and support to our apprentices rather than the other way around. By having this mix of in person and online support, we’ve increased both the amount of networking opportunities, as well as the opportunity for apprentices to ask questions and give feedback.”
Says Debbie, “We’ve seen an increase in the attendance of our drop-in sessions and received great feedback on the SME quarterly clinics in terms of the practical expertise shared, helping the apprentices fill any gaps in their business domain knowledge.”
Concludes Alex, “To take this interactivity and networking to the next level, for 2026 we’re looking to organise a hackathon for our ECP cohort at Roke. We’ll set them a specific business or industry-related problem and give them a short timeframe to collaborate on a solution. It will compress real-world learning, teamwork, and creativity into a short, energising burst and will push the apprentices out of their comfort zone, helping to accelerate their learning.”
By investing in meaningful support and innovative learning experiences, we are helping our apprentices across Chemring and Roke build skills for life and shape a future full of promise. We look forward to seeing how this year’s cohort will continue to inspire and lead into the future.