Matthews and Tannert Ltd

We’ve come a long way since our beginnings over 30 years ago in 1985, and we certainly couldn’t have gotten to where we are today without apprentices. We’ve had a strong belief in training young people and giving them jobs, something that we still do to this day.

Our long standing commitment to apprentices runs all the way back to before our first days as a business, when founders Steve & Mick trained as apprentices at a different business, before working together out of a garden shed in Kirkby In Ashfield. Having learnt the trade on the job and developed real skills, Steve & Mick then went on to found their own business, which became the Matthews & Tannert you see today.

From there, the company has grown, and the string of apprentices has continued. Craig, son of Steve and current director, always knew he would follow his father into the family business, but he had to learn the skills just as everyone else did, training as an apprentice on the job in the mid 90s, and going on to master the tools and lead the company from the front.

Craig, just like Steve & Mick loved the apprentice scheme, and the mixture of hard work and camaraderie, which only further grew our desire to take on apprentices. Massive companies such as Rolls Royce and Toyota have huge amounts of apprentices, and we like to think we do the same but on a smaller scale.

Out of the 125 staff that we currently employ, 17 of them are on apprenticeship programs, whilst a quarter of the fully trained staff all came through training schemes within the company and have grown into their senior roles.

Unlike many other companies, we also offer a full time job after the 5 year apprenticeship scheme is up. Anyone who meets their college targets can stay on, and all of our 17 current apprentices will do so should they wish to remain with us.

A particularly proud moment came when we were recognised by West Notts College at their “Celebration Of Apprenticeships” event at the House of Lords in London, when we were 1 of just 3 businesses (and the only in Nottinghamshire) to win an employer award for “Significant commitment towards apprenticeships”.

We have a strong ethos of local jobs for local people here at Matthews & Tannert, and we look forward to continuing to grow as a business, with young, local, employees who have been trained on an in house apprenticeship scheme.