A leading salary sacrifice and fleet management specialist is backing the upcoming National Apprenticeship Week after revealing that 75% of its staff and four of its current six-strong leadership team started out their working lives as apprentices.

Fleet Evolution won a Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce award in 2023 for people development linked to its apprenticeship programme

Tamworth-based Fleet Evolution, which specialises in EV salary sacrifice schemes for businesses of all sizes, has followed a strong apprentice-based approach since its formation 12 years ago.

It appoints apprentices wherever possible in a successful bid to encourage young people to join the fleet industry; the company now has an average age in the mid-to-late 20s.

Fleet Evolution achieved recognition for its work last year when it won a Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce award for people development linked to its apprenticeship programme.

Now in its 17^th year, National Apprenticeship Week 2024 runs from 5 to 13 February. The event shines a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make to individuals, businesses and the wider economy, with a theme this year of ‘Skills for Life’.

“We took on our first apprentice in 2012 as our first member of staff. Twelve years later, that apprentice, Charlotte Brooks, is still with us and has just been appointed as our general manager,” said Fleet Evolution founder and managing director, Andrew Leech.

“We are delighted that so many of our staff started out with us as apprentices and are still with us, with some going on to play a leading part in our leadership team and the successful running of the business. As a consequence, we are a very young and energetic company with a positive can-do attitude,” he said.

“We were also thrilled to receive recognition for our apprenticeship scheme from Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, part of an award scheme which is intended to recognise and celebrate individuals who are current apprentices or have completed apprenticeships, as well as those who support apprenticeships,” he added.

Apprentices have played a major part in the development of Fleet Evolution, which has grown its workforce by 100% in the last three years, and is forecast to increase by a further 100% over the next three.

All Fleet Evolution apprentices undergo higher training to level 4, the equivalent of the first year of a degree or Higher National Certificate (HNC), and level 5, the equivalent of a foundation degree or Higher National Diploma (HND).

The company is also currently in consultation with Aston University to develop a degree-level apprenticeship programme.

The business credits its young and dynamic workforce as one of the reasons that it’s one of the UK’s leading salary sacrifice specialists with schemes that focus on battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Its schemes include all servicing and repair costs, road fund licence, fully comprehensive insurance, corporate discounts and no deposit.

Benefits also include a 30-day no-quibble clause through which an employer can hand back a car where an employee leaves for whatever reason and provide further protection for when employees fall below the minimum wage, normally as a result of maternity or sickness.