Pioneer Boss Williams Continues To Press Ministers For Change

January 26, 2012 | Published by Steven

Danny Williams, managing direcctor of trade frame manufacturer Pioneer Trading, has established himself as a keen supporter of government retraining and apprenticeship schemes, having employed more than 25 individuals from long-term unemployed or ex-offender rehabilitation programmes during the past two years.

As an established and successful example of how government employment initiatives work in practice Danny was again invited to a presentation by a government minister promoting training initiatives in Essex, where Pioneer Trading has its factories. Introduced to John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, Danny took the opportunity to urge the government to offer greater incentives to companies that take part in government employment schemes: “Pioneer takes people from the various government employment schemes largely because we want to put something back into society,” explained Danny. “There are advantages to us as the people we take have been vetted and pre-trained by an agency, in our case the Trade Skills Academy at Romford, but a fiscal incentive from the government would make it a lot more attractive for more companies to take that first step, many of whom do not believe there is sufficient reason to even look at the schemes available.”

Danny took advantage of the meeting with the Minister to press his point: “We have had some excellent people through because we stuck our necks out and tried it and I explained that to Mr Hayes, who appeared to be sincere and interested in what was being said. That might sound naive, but I have been in the glazing industry for more than 20 years now and I think I can spot a fibber when I see one,” he joked.