Andrew Renwick has joined the LEIA board. In this interview, he tells us about his long association with the lift industry and the unique small business perspective he will bring to the board.
How did you get into the industry?
I was involved in Caltech Lifts from a young age because it was founded by my dad, Howard. Instead of doing a paper round, I would help my dad with paperwork – writing cheques to suppliers, highlighting any lift leads in the old Glenigan books and printing out sales letters. I was paid the same as a paper boy, but I didn’t have to get up at 5am and go out on a dreich Scottish morning!
I also wanted to bring something to the table, so after school I went off to Dundee University to do an Economics degree. After completing an MA (Hons) I was the uni’s Sports Union President for 12 months before joining a graduate sales training programme for spirits firm Whyte and Mackay.
It was during my time here I learned some great sales skills and used to share them with my dad’s business consultant, Charles Hunter. With my flurry of ideas to develop Caltech, it was clear I wanted to make them reality. I joined the company in 2007 and worked in business development, sales, project management and general management before becoming MD in.May 2013.
What prompted you to get involved with the LEIA board?
I‘ve been an active member of LEIA since 2011 and rarely miss any of the Council meetings.
Last year, a couple of Board members had retired and no-one from the membership had put themselves forward to replace the open positions. I therefore approached Nick Mellor and enquired about volunteering my services, as did Dave Martin, MD of DeSem Lifts. This allowed the board to get back to an appropriate number.
Having enjoyed the experience, and feeling I had only just got started, I put myself forward for nomination at the recent AGM, where due to the increased number of nominations compared to available Board seats, it went to a membership vote, which I was delighted to see saw me re-elected.
Why is it important to support the work of LEIA?
LEIA represents the collective voice of the industry. Supporting LEIA means supporting its advocacy efforts, which can influence policies, regulations and standards which directly impact the industry. This advocacy ensures industry professionals have a say in shaping their future.
What do you hope to achieve as a Board member?
As a director of a smaller lift company, I’m eager to provide that vital perspective at Board level. The lift and escalator industry faces a multitude of challenges and I believe my 16 years’ of experience in this field, which includes substantial growth within our family business, has equipped me well to tackle both specific industry challenges and broader business issues.
Small companies possess a remarkable ability to respond swiftly and adapt to new challenges. My intention is to harness this agile mindset within the Board to proactively address the challenges our industry encounters. By leveraging our nimbleness, we can drive innovative solutions and guide the industry toward a more dynamic and resilient future.
Can you tell us a bit about Caltech’s apprenticeship scheme (i.e. how many apprentices have you hired, which standards, any lessons learned or advice for other employers?)
We first signed up to support an apprentice through the Scottish Modern Apprenticeship system in August 2016 – taking on local 18-year-old teen Conar Tweed.
When we went to local training body Angus Training Group in search of a suitable candidate for a Modern Apprenticeship, Conar applied because he’d heard from a friend we were a good firm to work for. Weeks later he proved to be the best of four candidates put forward according to a combination of exam and practical test results.
He started a four-year Modern Apprenticeship with a first year where he studied full-time with Angus Training Group and Aberdeen College on a two-year HNC in Electrical Engineering. The following year he worked four days a week with us applying the skills and knowledge learned while completing the course in the remaining weekday. He also began studying for an NVQ Level 3 in Lift Engineering Maintenance, which should take three years. Subject to completing that, we planned to offer him a full-time job at the end of his Modern Apprenticeship.
Since then, we’ve hired three more Modern Apprentices and currently employ two. We recently took on our first female apprentice, which we hope will encourage others to really think about a career as a lift engineer.
In those seven years we’ve learned to be patient with apprentices and try hard to understand how the individuals learn best.
What has really helped us is having so many experienced engineers trained at the former Michelin plant in Dundee – they’ve become fantastic lift engineers and are good at passing on their world-class engineering training. Most of the engineers we took on from Michelin all started there as apprentices, so they’ve been able to provide some great insight into methods of teaching.
Another thing we’ve learned over the years is to really allow the apprentices to effectively ‘fail forward’ – make a minor mistake in a controlled, safe environment and then work out how they can rectify it and what they can do next time to complete that task better.
What are the advantages of entering the industry via an apprenticeship?
As the marketing says, it’s an opportunity to earn while learning, so particularly helps those whose family finances means they can’t consider going to university or college full-time.
The other big thing is they get practical experience to reinforce the classroom learning and be able to tackle work with confidence – giving them a clear advantage over those who’ve only studied theory but not applied it yet when applying for jobs.
Also, working with experienced colleagues helps them pick up the social ‘soft skills’ around things like communicating with colleagues and clients as well as seeing how health and safety and technical standards are implemented on the ground. It also gives them a new social network of colleagues who can help them with any stress around work in addition to the support we provide.
In what way does the integration of new technology in the lift industry impact the training and skill development of apprentices, and how should apprentices adapt to these changes?
Clearly, the courses have to stay up-to-date with the new technologies being rolled out by manufacturers so the qualification the apprentices receive is 100% relevant and doesn’t rely on their employer training them on whatever has emerged since the course was last updated. For example, as lifts become ‘smarter’, there’s an increasing learning curve on how to diagnose and analyse lift breakdowns using remote monitoring software.
I think the onus is on the training establishments, not the apprentices, to ensure their skills make them ready to deal with anything when they get their Modern Apprenticeship.
How can we ensure apprenticeships in our industry are diverse to attract a wide range of talent?
There’s a lot in the idea that ‘if you can’t see it, you can’t be it’, so employers, LEIA and training bodies have to do what we can to recruit people from more diverse backgrounds and then, crucially, communicate their roles and positive experiences to the young people who could follow in their footsteps after being inspired by them.
Most powerfully, they should be given their voice via communication channels young people use most (e.g. TikTok and Instagram) to speak directly in their own authentic way about what they enjoy about working in the lift industry and how they got to where they are now. That will use ‘social proof’ to inspire those like them to apply to follow them.
Current apprenticeship vacancies in the industry can be found via the LEIA Lift Careers site: liftcareers.co.uk