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Paul Benham goes back to the floor at SETA Southampton

Happy memories: Pictured left to right are SETA Chief Executive Richard Heighington, Jack Cabala, Paul Benham and Charlton Spinks.

The boss of a major Hampshire firm who started out as an engineering apprentice swapped his suit for overalls and went “back to the floor” to see how two of his recruits were learning their trade.

Paul Benham, Managing Director of Totton-based Benham Manufacturing, learned his trade as an apprentice at SETA (Southampton Engineering Training Association) in 1976.

Now he has two apprentices starting out on the same track and was keen to see how the training regime at SETA’s Millbrook workshops had changed over the past 35 years.

So he pulled on his overalls at SETA and spent the morning with his two newest employees – 18-year-old Jack Cabala and Charlton Spinks, 21, as they went through a typical day honing their skills.

With National Apprentice Week starting on February 7, and SETA’s own open evening on the Thursday of that week (February 10) there will be hundreds of young people deciding whether an engineering apprenticeship is right for them.

Paul, who now employs more than 60 people at Benham Manuacturing making precision components for a variety of applications, mainly in the defence and aerospace industries, has no doubt.

“It was the perfect transition between school and employment,” he said. “I do remember really enjoying my year at SETA with a great bunch of other trainees. Things were more formal then – we called all the instructors ‘Mr’.  The majority of our time was spent in the workshops, doing practical jobs, and I remember we came out with all that experience.”

“Without doubt, my apprenticeship has proved invaluable throughout my career.  Even today, juggling the responsibilities of running a company, the problem-solving skills I learnt early on are essential.  Team-work, consistent quality, deadlines, project-management – these are all skills that I started learning about during my apprenticeship that I still use every day.”

He added: “It can be difficult to recruit skilled staff but this obstacle can be overcome by recruiting talented people into your business and training them yourself – with the help of a good training provider, like SETA.

“In recent years, we have recruited an apprentice almost every year, and whenever we identify a need for staff, we think seriously about whether that need could be filled with an apprentice. Apprentices are about planning for your future requirements; we don’t automatically recruit an apprentice into every vacancy but we do recognise that we need to develop skilled resources for our company.”

Download Paul Benham back to the floor at SETA on Radio Solent (7MB)

Fact File:

There have been quite a few changes in the 35 years since Paul Benham was an apprentice at SETA in Southampton.

  • Apprenticeships today have nationally recognised qualifications; Paul left SETA after a year with nothing but experience up his sleeve but his apprentices will leave with an armful of certificates as well as a full Level Two Apprenticeship, before they go on to do their Advanced Apprenticeship and BTEC.
  • Paul did a full year at SETA doing a bit of everything; today, basic training is tailored to whatever the employer needs.  For example Paul’s apprentices will have done six months of the mechanical skills Paul requires for his business.
  • There is a greater variety of engineering at SETA now; there is still the machining, electrical installation and welding that Paul would have experienced and today also instrumentation and electronics, maintenance, hydraulics, pneumatics, CAD and engineering construction skills.
  • There are fewer apprentices per instructor now which, Paul said, adds to the ‘learning experience’.
  • Technical Certificates are taught at SETA now, you don’t have to go to college.
  • The training centre and resources have been developed.
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