
Phil Smith
Chair of Skills England; former CEO and Chairman of Cisco UK & Ireland, CBE.
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Sep 11, 2026
Take 5: Phil Smith CBE, Chair Skills England, Episode 7: Finding Your Way - What an Apprenticeship Can Really Teach You!
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22:52

Phil SmithGUEST
I mean, I did a degree in microbiology, ended up in technology and, you know, ended up running a company and whatever.

Phil SmithGUEST
So, you know, it's one of those things where I think it is quite difficult at that age to determine exactly what you want.

Phil SmithGUEST
But if you were looking back at yourself now, I mean, obviously you came from a particularly challenging time to COVID and so on.

Phil SmithGUEST
But a young person now, what would you kind of tell them to do? Would you say just go and look at apprentices, jump in? What's your kind of sense of it really?
6 MINS LATER

Maya PatelGUEST
Exploring, you know, holding the hangrail, being taught by loads of different people, hearing experiences from people around you can change that.
Take 5: Phil Smith CBE, Chair Skills England, Episode 6: Apprenticeships in the Company DNA
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17:47

Richard GouldmanGUEST
Yeah, we have that, but we have sort of pepper pot sites spread out it's very difficult getting those apprentices to those sites because invariably when they start with us they don't have transport they don't have vehicles we looked at solutions for example we purchased two minibuses and our mentors would meet them in sensory locations and take them but sometimes that doesn't it causes problems in terms of getting there getting back so yeah that's a challenge

Phil SmithGUEST
that's an interesting one because it is something we hear quite a lot about They kind of joined up nature.

Phil SmithGUEST
You know, if you're in a city, it's slightly better because there is transport buses and so on.

Phil SmithGUEST
If you're in the countryside, you know, these young people just can't, the chances of them getting to these things are pretty sudden.

Phil SmithGUEST
So joining up, you know, some people doing free bus passes and all that sort of stuff to try and get people.

Richard GouldmanGUEST
We do have long-term people in the company who have started with us at Schreiber.
