NEW FACE FOR FENCING

John Smith, Operations Director for fencing giant Saferoad BLG Ltd, has joined Lantra Sector Skills Council’s Fencing Group with a mission to raise fencing’s profile as a highly skilled and secure career.

Based at the Saferoad BLG UK head office in Scunthorpe, John wants to spread the message among fencing employers, their clients and the ‘new blood’ that he believes the industry desperately needs. “Fencing is very much a skilled job” explains John. “A good fencer can put up a mile a day. We need more fencing apprentices. We need it to be much easier for employers to take on and train young people. We want schools to talk about fencing as a potential career.” John Smith speaks from the heart because he started his career as a teenager who dropped out of A Levels and turned to an apprenticeship. “The average age of a fencer in this country is around 45 and increasing. We don’t have any new blood coming in and apprentices would be welcome. Experienced hands would enjoy passing on their skills to a new generation.” John will not mind making waves if the fencing industry in its broadest sense is acknowledged as a sector requiring skills and a fully-trained workforce: “That is the golden chalice, 100% training. Many employers and clients pay lip service to training apart from Health and Safety training which is obligatory.” Lantra has welcomed John as chair of its Fencing Industry Group in part because his is a voice from within the industry and training has been at the forefront of his career. Lantra’s Fencing Industry Manager, Kevin Thomas, said: “John will be a vital asset to moving our work with industry forward in the next couple of years. With John’s passion for training we can work together to ensure that we can encourage new blood into what can be a very rewarding career both personally and financially.” John would like a two-pronged approach to improvements in training - from organisations like Lantra promoting upwards while clients and employers promote downwards. “We need to stop people thinking ‘it’s only a fence’! Yes, it’s going to take a few years but in an ideal world everybody should have some training, particularly on the equipment they use. There are many benefits in training - people are confident in their jobs and an employer can be confident they are sending out the right person for their client, for fellow workers. Trained people have self esteem, they’re more responsible, they have their qualifications to live up to and they will protect their employer’s reputation. You get a job done to a standard and the work is consistent.” ENDS Issued by: Vicky Brewin, Lantra Press Office – england.media@lantra.co.uk or 02476 858 417. Picture caption: Operations Director, John Smith, at work at Saferoad BLG Ltd, NOTES TO EDITOR: About Lantra Lantra, the Sector Skills Council for the environmental and land-based sector, is licensed by the UK government to drive forward the new skills, training and business development agenda for the sector. Lantra represents 17 industries and 1.5 million workers and volunteers in agricultural crops, agricultural livestock, animal care, animal technology, aquaculture, environmental conservation, equine, farriery, fencing, fisheries management, floristry, game and wildlife management, land-based engineering, landscape, production horticulture, trees and timber and veterinary nursing. For more information see www.lantra.co.uk.

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