JCB celebrate 60 years of apprenticeships with special reunion

Four of the company’s first apprentices return to the factory for diamond anniversary celebration

FOUR former employees were 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 yesterday 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 JCB 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 JCB’s 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.’

Chris Carnwell, now 75, retired from JCB in 2008 after nearly 45 years with the company. He qualified as a toolmaker 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. I’m very proud of the fact that my apprenticeship indentures were signed by JCB’s founder Joseph Cyril Bamford and I still have them to this day. My apprenticeship really was superb and set me up for life.’

Six other apprentices joined JCB throughout 1964: John Smith, Mick Higgs, Geoff Mellor, Keith Hepden, Don Rushton, and Nigel Heinich. Mr Heinich (75) joined JCB on 31 August 1964. He 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. To identify that we were apprentices, we all had to wear white overalls emblazoned with a large red JCB logo on the back, with another on the pocket.

‘I also remember were given a book of one-shilling daily tickets (five pence in today’s money) towards our canteen lunch. This covered half the cost of a main course and a pudding. 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) worked 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) said: ‘When I started work at JCB there were around 500 people working there and we all knew one another. 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!’