E.ON impressed
with business
apprenticeships

Our Apprenticeships team have been working with energy provider E.ON since 2019, providing apprenticeships to develop the company’s future leaders.

About the collaboration

E.ON currently has 30 apprentices enrolled on two of our programmes: the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (undergraduate, Level 6) and the Senior Leader Apprenticeship (postgraduate, Level 7).

Apprentice Co-ordinator for E.ON, Darren Cook, explains how E.ON works with the university: “We’ve built a great relationship with the University of Derby over the last couple of years. They are very transparent in helping us support the apprentices to be successful and ensuring that together, we get the best out of our apprentices and help them achieve the results they deserve.”

Why Derby?


Darren chose to work with our University for several reasons: “I initially found out about Derby’s apprenticeships by searching on the Institute of Apprenticeships website. I decided to work with them based on factors such as their success ratings, Ofsted reports and above all, interactions with the team. We immediately clicked with Andy Dowling, Derby’s Apprenticeship Business Development Manager, and the two programme leaders. They knew what we wanted, which was to provide the apprentices with a good balance of university and working life.”

Head and shoulders of Darren Cook, Apprentice Co-ordinator from E.ON

We immediately clicked with Andy Dowling, Derby’s Apprenticeship Business Development Manager, and the two programme leaders. They knew what we wanted, which was to provide the apprentices with a good balance of university and working life.

Darren Cook
Apprentice Co-ordinator for E.ON

The benefits of apprenticeships

When asked about the benefits of apprenticeships specifically, Darren says: “From a development perspective, it allows us to pinpoint skills and capabilities gaps. It also allows us to bring on fresh talent. Having apprentices within a team can really motivate that team. Apprenticeships are fundamental to how we shape our business over the next five to ten years.”

Delivering apprenticeships during the pandemic

Many of E.ON’s apprentices were only in their first year of study when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK. This meant that the delivery of the programmes had to be quickly adapted. Darren describes his experience of working with Derby though this period:

“We asked all our apprenticeship providers to move to remote learning. Derby immediately reacted to that and put in place remote work and support quite quickly; they also communicated it really well to our apprentices. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the way they responded.”