Attitude program starts a Trend towards apprenticeships : Strong brand attracts building‐service engineers of the future

Purpose – The paper aims to explain how strong branding is helping Trend Control Systems to solve the shortage of trained building‐service engineers in the UK building‐services industry by recruiting more apprentices. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the background to the “Attitude” apprenticeship scheme, and how it operates in practice. Findings – The case study reveals that the program, so called to emphasize the need for candidates with the right approach to work, attracted 550 applicants in 2007, of whom 50 were offered apprenticeships in building‐services engineering. Seven are employed directly by Trend, the remainder by 26 partner companies – independent building‐system integrators who install Trend products. Practical implications – The paper reveals that Trend is working closely with colleges to ensure that the training they provide closely matches what employers require. Originality/value – The paper shows that strong branding and a marketing campaign can help to attract young people to industries that have experienced a shortage of trained employees.