60 YEARS OF APPRENTICESHIPS CELEBRATED

PICTURED ABOVE: Class of '64 - Chris Carnwell, Keith Hepden, Mick Higgs and Nigel Heinich

Four former employees were recently treated to a VIP visit to JCB to mark the 60th anniversary of their recruitment as the company’s first ever apprentices.

A total of nine 15-year-old boys started as Craft Apprentices at the Rocester plant in 1964 and four of them - Chris Carnwell, Nigel Heinich, Mick Higgs, and Keith Hepden - retraced their footsteps to the factory to mark the diamond anniversary of the JCB apprenticeship programme. They were welcomed by JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford, who also started work at JCB in 1964.
 
The quartet were trailblazers for JCB’s apprenticeship scheme, which currently has around 300 apprentices on scheme and in the last 12 years alone has seen the company recruit 1,500 apprentices. When they started work, they were earning £3 a week. During their visit they were given a tour of the Story of JCB exhibition, met some of the newest apprentices and were given a special VIP lunch.
 
Lord Bamford, who served an engineering apprenticeship in France before joining JCB in 1964, said, “The recruitment of our first apprentices 60 years ago laid very firm foundations for the future. We have recruited hundreds of apprentices since those early days and many of them have gone on to senior positions in the company. It really is a fantastic way to start a career.”

Apprentices in 1964
 
Chris Carnwell, now 75, of Tean, near Cheadle, Staffordshire, retired from JCB in 2008 after nearly 45 years with the company.  He qualified as a tool maker after his apprenticeship and ended his career as a senior engineer. He said:  “When I was at school, I was always very good at woodwork and metalwork and used to come top of the class in that field. I wanted to do something to use those practical skills and enquired about getting a position at JCB which, in 1964, was still an up-and-coming company. I had two interviews and was lucky enough to be selected for an apprenticeship along with two others, Billy Brighouse, and John Millward.”
 
Six other apprentices then joined JCB throughout 1964: John Smith, Mick Higgs, Geoff Mellor, Keith Hepden, Don Rushton, and Nigel Heinich. Nigel, 75, of Uttoxeter, joined JCB on August 31st, 1964 said: “Mr Bamford was very proud of that first apprentice intake and he paid particular interest in our progress. For most of us, out of our first wage packet, we had to buy our first pair of steel-capped, toe-tector boots, which we had to wear in the college workshops or the factory. I went on to work for JCB for more than 35 years in many different roles including service technical clerk, training instructor, service supervisor. Sixty years on, it’s a route I’d highly recommend any young person to follow. It sets you up for life.”
 
Mick Higgs, 75, of Wetley Rocks, Stoke-on-Trent, went on to work for JCB 38 years and rose to the position of director and worked for several years for JCB in India. He said: “Starting an apprenticeship at JCB really did lay some fantastic foundations for my career and opened up a world of opportunity for me including working for the company in both India and Germany. Apprenticeships are a route I would recommend to any young person without any hesitation.”
 
Keith Hepden, 75, of Foxt, near Cheadle, said: “One of my favourite memories of those early days was actually a time when I was off ill and my mother spotted Mr JCB’s Cadillac coming up the drive and it turned out to be one of the company’s chauffeurs delivering my wages which were paid in cash those days!”