Announcing Our 5% Club Membership
We’re delighted to announce we have joined The 5% Club, an employer-led movement focused on creating meaningful earn and learn career opportunities for people across the UK. Membership of the 5% Club further reinforces our long-standing commitment to attracting and developing talent from diverse backgrounds into the telecoms, connectivity and power infrastructure sectors. Working with The 5% Club, we’ll actively support early careers and alternative pathways into the industry.
The 5% Club exists to increase the employment and career prospects of today’s youth and to help equip the UK with the skilled workforce it needs for the future. Member organisations commit to building a workforce where at least 5% of their employees are engaged in earn and learn roles, including apprenticeships, graduate programmes, sponsored students and traineeships, within five years of joining.
Across Clarke Telecom and Clarke Connect, and as a 5% Club member, we will measure and report progress annually, embedding accountability and transparency into how we invest in youth employee development.
We already support a wide range of early-career and development opportunities, with 17 of our employees falling into the 5% Club status, which is around 5.5% of our total workforce, including:
- Apprenticeship programmes
- Graduate and traineeship pathways
- Company-funded learning and development opportunities
Looking ahead, we’ll further expand these pathways with the introduction of T-Levels from 2026, helping to strengthen technical education routes and address ongoing skills shortages within the infrastructure sector.
The telecoms, connectivity and power infrastructure sectors face a well-documented industry-wide challenge: an ageing workforce alongside increasing demand for new technical, digital and commercial skills. Addressing this requires long-term investment in early careers and structured development that prepares the next generation to step confidently into critical roles.
In collaboration with Renew Holdings PLC, our Emerging Talent Programme plays a key role in tackling this challenge. The Programme combines academic learning with hands-on experience, providing early-career colleagues with a clear development pathway that builds capability, confidence, and understanding of how their contributions support our business and the wider industry.
Delivered through a structured one-year framework, the Programme includes five core development modules and a collaborative project, supporting the development of essential technical, behavioural and commercial skills alongside real workplace experience. Following completion, individuals continue to focus on their role and academic studies, with degree apprenticeships typically taking around five years to complete.
Degree apprenticeships are fully funded by us and supported through coaching, development and mandatory role-specific training, including industry learning such as working at height and radio frequency awareness. Participants also have opportunities to work towards professional qualifications and chartership, where applicable.
Demand for these pathways continues to grow, with degree apprenticeship vacancies attracting between 150 and 200 applications per role each year.
In 2025, we welcomed two colleagues onto the Emerging Talent Programme:
- Beau Coffey, Apprentice Acquisition Surveyor, and
- Liam Wiezniak, Apprentice Quantity Surveyor.
Their progression reflects our continued investment in future capability and the long-term skills pipeline across the infrastructure sector.
A people-first approach to tackling the skills shortage
Tackling the skills gap and diversifying the workforce remain key priorities for us. By investing in structured learning, hands-on experience, and long-term development, we’re continually supporting individual career progression and strengthening the resilience and capability of our business and the wider industry.
Sergio Pinguinha, HR Advisor at Clarke, commented,
“Joining The 5% Club is a natural progression for us. We are passionate about creating opportunities that allow people to learn, grow and build meaningful careers with us. By committing to earn and learn pathways, we are investing in the future of our people and the future skills our industry depends on.”
Part of a wider commitment to responsible employment
Founded in 2013, The 5% Club works with more than 1,000 employers across the UK, from SMEs to FTSE organisations, to champion skills development with measurable social impact. Through its platform, they also engage with policymakers and industry leaders to promote the value of long-term skills investment.
As members, we join a community of employers who share a common ethos focused on structured development, education and opportunity. We are proud to be recognised as part of this club and movement and look forward to working alongside The 5% Club and its members to continue building a skilled, inclusive and future-ready workforce.
For more information about The 5% Club, visit www.5percentclub.org.uk.