Member Article

Europa Air’s Three Youngest Employees Flying High

Leading logistics operator Europa Worldwide Group’s Air & Sea division is celebrating the successful training of three young employees who were hired as part of a challenging apprenticeship-style programme.

Rosie Darbon, 21, Sophie Purdey and Josa Albert, both 20, joined the company last summer as trainees with no experience in the airfreight industry. After working their way through a year-long training programme, they are now Air Import and Export Operatives.

Their progress has been monitored throughout the training with set Key Performance Indicators to hit. As well as learning on the job, they attend weekly classroom sessions to learn the basics of the Airfreight industry with different topics covered each week.

Andy Serpant, Airfreight Manager at Europa Air & Sea in London Road, Staines, said: “Last summer we decided to look at employing people with no prior experience in the Airfreight industry and implementing our own training to get them up to speed. The beauty of a programme like this is that we can mould our staff from the very beginning of their careers.

“We’ve been extremely impressed by Rosie, Sophie and Josa. They are very willing to learn and we couldn’t be happier with the progress they’re making. Our programme is a bit like an apprenticeship scheme, but not quite as regimented. We try and create a relaxed atmosphere, which is also challenging and stimulating. We encourage them as they go and if there is any terminology they don’t understand, we bring it up in the classroom sessions.

“This training programme represents a big investment on the part of Europa in terms of the time and effort put into the training, but the rewards make it extremely worthwhile. Now that these three are becoming proficient in what they do, we’ll be looking at further growing our team.”

As an Air Import Operative, Sophie’s day-to-day role incorporates all aspects of air import operations from receiving and processing pre-alerts and liaising with customers, to submitting entries to HMRC and arranging delivery.

Sophie said: “I wanted a bit of a change and I was interested in Europa because I’ve never worked anywhere like it previously. So far, I’ve had a really good experience because it’s such an interesting job. I’ve learned so much already and a wide variety of skills. The airfreight industry is a great career to be involved in and I would definitely recommend Europa to other people.”

Rosie and Josa’s roles as Air Export Operatives encompass a wide range of operational and administrative tasks, from arranging and overseeing shipments up to final delivery to the consignee. This includes the preparation of all necessary documentation and entries to HMRC, as well as clear and concise communication with airlines, network agents and customers.

Josa said: “This is definitely a career, not just a job. You always get the help you need and you learn something new every day. I think I’ll be staying in airfreight for a while!”

In a similar vein to training these three new starters in the Air division, Europa’s Road division has recently launched a tailored ‘Rapid Career Development Programme’, which provides a unique opportunity for school leavers who have decided university is not the route for them. It’s geared towards attracting the brightest and the best future Road Account Managers – with a four-year plan that leads to a competitive salary, company car and bonus system.

Europa Worldwide Group is a specialist road, air & sea and warehouse operator which employs more than 750 staff across 11 sites in the UK and Hong Kong.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Helen Patchett .