Stannah Scotland invests in young talent through paid internships and mentoring for young people

Stannah Scotland is working with Career Ready – a social mobility charity – to provide young people with a paid four-week internship, as they transition from foundation apprenticeship level S5 into S6, alongside 18 months of mentoring support from an employee in the business.

The internships which took place in June and July 2022 were based in the central belt of Scotland based at Stannah’s Scotland service branch with apprenticeships offered in a variety of departments including the domestic and industrial markets.

Working within a team and supported by a dedicated line manager and their mentor, the interns had the opportunity to meet and network with colleagues, develop important employability skills, contributed to the business and to team projects.

One of the interns, Sajal Pradhan, spent two weeks on the domestic side at Stannah to experience call outs, repairs, and maintenance on all types of stairlifts in the central belt. He then spent two weeks with Stannah’s industrial engineers working on larger lifts.

Sajal said: I was very excited to get the internship at Stannah. I want to be a mechanical engineer and after looking at what Stannah does I thought that Stannah would be able to give me the guidance and experience I need to get me started on my career journey.

It was an amazing experience. I learnt so much about lifts I didn’t even consider, and the team were great to work with. I was a little sad when my internship ended but the ongoing support from Craig as my mentor has been such a big help and I feel really good about getting to where I want to be in my career.”

Craig Stevenson, Stannah Scotland Branch Manager said: “I wanted to get involved in this fantastic initiative and jumped at the chance to mentor a young person to try and create engagement and further interest in our industry.

“I met Sajal initially in March this year and was immediately impressed by his enthusiasm for the lift industry, we then had further monthly catch ups to get ready for the four-weeklong internship which started on 27 July.

“Feedback from all mentoring engineers has been fantastic. Sajal has taken this all in his stride and really ‘got stuck in’. He is very eager and always asked questions that related to the job in hand. He was very interested in the company structure and how the engineers felt about working at Stannah.”

Sajal is now back at school in his final year. Craig will continue to mentor Sajal for the next 18 months and will help to guide him on his journey to start a rewarding career as an engineer.

Anne Wexelstein, Career Ready Director for Scotland said: “We’d like to thank Craig and his team at Stannah Scotland for working with us to invest in young talent. Paid internships and mentoring are key in helping the young people we focus on develop the workplace skills and confidence they need to succeed in the world of work, and on more of a level playing field. I’m always encouraging other businesses to join us, through this initiative Stannah Scotland is giving young people the opportunities and support they need and contributing to making real The Young Person’s Guarantee.”

Career Ready is a social mobility charity that works with employers, their employees, schools, and local authorities to provide young people in S5/S6 with a deep, immersive programme of a paid internship, mentoring, skills masterclasses, and workplace visits, alongside their school studies. Each student receives a paid internship at the workplace of their mentor.

Stannah is committed to the career development of our next generation of engineers offering entry level jobs, training programmes, apprenticeships and internships.