From Apprentice to Full Time Warehouse Operative – Calum Harcourt

At Instant Home our staff are the heart of the business. We really value working with apprentices to help them to find a career path and to grow and develop with us. We work closely with Huntingdon Regional College on their apprenticeship programme. Calum started as an apprentice with us two and a half years ago, he is about to leave us for pastures new and we wish him all the best and have greatly valued his contribution to the business. We spoke to Calum recently about his experience at Instant Home and life as an apprentice:

My name is Calum, before becoming a full time warehouse operative at Instant Home, I started off as an apprentice in March 2015. After I finished my GCSEs I didn’t know what I wanted to do next, or even really what my options were. Thankfully Huntingdon Regional College were really helpful and suggested the Instant Home apprenticeship to me. It was a warehouse and logistics apprenticeship – this meant I worked full time for the company and someone from the college would regularly come in and assess how I was working against the objectives I had been set. I would talk to them about my knowledge of the job and they would give me tasks I needed to undertake in order to complete my apprenticeship.

It was incredibly valuable to me to work full time and learn while I was on the job. I was getting paid whilst learning, not just about the job either, it taught me a lot about being an adult and helped me grow up. Plus all the while I could rest assured that I was securing my future. Lots of my friends also did apprenticeships and we all found them really helpful – I would definitely recommend them.

I have loved my time at Instant Home. My day to day work involved picking the furniture and other items, loading up the van and taking them off to create new homes for our customers. I also did stock checking and cleaning – making sure everything we send out is in the best condition. My favourite part of my job was getting to travel the country and go to places that were completely new to me – that was great fun. Once I went all the way to Scotland for a job – I’ve never been there and loved the landscape.

Instant Home means a lot to me as it has given me an amazing opportunity, it’s also helped me to grow and mature as a person and have a positive attitude about work. I have enjoyed my time at Instant Home immensely, it helps a lot that it’s been like a second little family to me – it’s a very small and close knit team. Apprenticeships really provide great opportunities, especially if you don’t know what you want to do, it helps you to get out and try new things and find your path. I’m glad that path led me to Instant Home.