Alistair Tosh, Kirby Group HR Director spoke to the Business Post on how apprenticeships shape the ‘Kirby Way’ – building skills, leadership and long-term career pathways that support the evolving needs of our industry.
Apprenticeships are the foundation of Kirby Group Engineering, one of Ireland’s leading mechanical and electrical engineering contractors. With an annual turnover of more than €900 million, Kirby serves a wide client base across Ireland, the UK, mainland Europe and the Nordics, delivering full mechanical and electrical services, as well as specialist high and medium voltage design and construction services. Its work spans several sectors, including data centres, life sciences and renewable energy.
Apprenticeships have been a core part of Kirby’s methodology since the company was founded in Limerick in 1964, and they remain a key recruitment pathway today, as Alistair Tosh, Kirby Group HR Director, explains.
“The strength of leadership at Kirby is deeply associated with the apprenticeship programme – four of our board members have come through the apprenticeship process,” he says. “They understand the value of developing talent internally, whether in Ireland or abroad. These are the people we can rely on to deliver successfully, safely, on time and within budget for our clients.”
In addition to giving apprentices practical, on-site experience, the company’s structured learning and development framework – known as the ‘Kirby Way’ – shapes expectations, processes and culture across the organisation, fostering leadership from the outset.
“When our CEO, Henry McCann, took his position, he was very clear that we wanted to be a ‘learning and teaching’ organisation,” says Tosh. “We’ve invested heavily in skills development – we recently embedded an instructional design team whose work over the past year has focused almost exclusively on developing training around the ‘Kirby Way’.
“For apprentices, this means that while they are developing their technical skills – for example, training as electricians – they are also absorbing the core principles that define Kirby. It’s cultural – who we are, what we expect, how we treat people, and importantly, how we deliver projects.”
As the sectors in which Kirby operates continue to evolve, the company has invested in a dedicated training facility at its Portlaoise off-site manufacturing base to help apprentices keep pace with new methods and technologies.
“We’ve invested heavily in our business modelling teams,” Tosh says. “That best practice – both in design and delivery – is then transferred straight into our training environment. We’re constantly evolving. We work in life sciences and data centres, and those environments are at the cutting edge. We aim to lead in that as much as possible.”
Apprentices also receive one-to-one mentoring from experienced personnel as they progress. “Each mentor is responsible for an apprentice’s development – assessing them in specific scenarios, evaluating their capabilities and, when they’re ready, giving them additional responsibilities appropriate to their qualifications,” he adds.
This hands-on level of engagement ensures apprentices see their training as the beginning of a long-term career at Kirby, rather than a standalone qualification. In a sector where employee retention can be challenging, the company’s commitment to aligning individual ambition with defined career pathways offers clear opportunities for progression.
“We know we can produce future leaders,” says Tosh. “Our apprenticeship programme has been designed with that understanding in mind – that people can go all the way in our organisation, even if they don’t have a third-level degree. “
“We are always on the lookout for talent and capability, giving people opportunities that drive growth. If we can align their ambitions with a clear career trajectory – which, historically, we have done – it adds a little more ‘stickiness’ in the context of retention.”
At Kirby, apprenticeships aren’t just central to operations, they are the “lifeblood” of the organisation and have shaped how the group delivers projects and develops talent, he adds. “Apprenticeships have informed how we operate in our industry, at all levels. That’s shown by the careers that people have grown here within Kirby.”
In broader terms, meanwhile, while Tosh believes that Ireland is home to some of the strongest apprenticeship programmes on a European – if not global – level, gaps remain in terms of meeting emerging sector demands, particularly when it comes to technology. He references a recent call-to-action from Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, who warned of a looming global shortage of craft workers critical to AI infrastructure – in other words, people to build and staff data centres and manage power distribution.
“We’ve obviously invested in that area, but I think that Ireland, in a general sense, needs to be aware that we’re entering an age where power is critical,” he says. “To get to where we need to be, we need a pipeline of people coming through in the craft sector – it’s hugely important.”
Both for Kirby and for Ireland Inc., therefore, investing in apprenticeships is not just a talent strategy – it’s essential for supporting infrastructure development.
Learn more about Kirby’s apprenticeship programmes at careers.kirbygroup.com
