Diane Paul joined aerospace firm, Ontic, as a temporary recruitment manager in February 2020, tasked with recruiting 15 new team members to its then only site at Bishop's Cleeve. Fast forward to four years later and Ontic has another site at Staverton, Diane and her team have more than doubled Ontic's staff numbers in the area (now at around 700 people in Gloucestershire) and and have made big investments in their apprenticeship programmes, with the 2025 recruitment drive having just started this October 2024.
SoGlos sits down with Diane to find out about the culture at one of the country's leading aerospace manufacturers and what new apprentices can expect when they join.
Diane, can you talk us through your background?
I've been in recruitment for over 20 years, which is a little bit scary really! I've worked in finance, telecommunications and now aerospace engineering. I can still remember my first in-house recruitment role. One of the business unit directors, many years ago, had a knee-high pile of paper CVs in the corner of his office. He used to get them sent through, would print them out and read them all!
I've met a huge number of people in my role over the years, through interviewing. And that's probably one of the things that I enjoy the most. I enjoy meeting people, finding out about them and getting to know them.
What has been your journey at Ontic so far?
Ontic was acquired by CVC Capital Partners, our private equity backers, from BBA Aviation in November 2019 and I joined in February 2020.
They had 15 roles they needed to fill and I joined for three months to fulfil those. But I knew on that first day that I wanted to stay for longer. I immediately knew Ontic was a great place to work and I spent the first few days thinking, 'how am I going to eke these 15 roles out so I can stay longer'! A few weeks later, when we were all sent to work from home because of Covid, I was kept on because, counter to most other businesses, we were still growing. I carried on recruiting all the way through the pandemic.
Fast forward to four years later — I'm still here and the team has just recruited 50 new starters in one month!
What attracted you to Ontic?
I recall sitting in reception waiting to have my interview for the job — back then Ontic only had the one site in Bishop's Cleeve — and every single person that passed through stopped and said 'hello' and asked if they could help me.
I'd come from an environment where people just did not talk to each other and I was taken aback by how welcomed that made me feel. People were saying 'good morning' to each other and genuinely seemed happy to be at work.
It is a very friendly culture; very open. We hold monthly 'all hands' meetings where we share details of how we're doing as a business, what our monthly goals are, and — probably most popularly — what bonus percentage we’re on track for! We're very transparent. Every single employee is eligible to receive a bonus and it really helps people to see that their efforts today will pay dividends at the end of the year.
We also hold free raffles on a quarterly basis which everybody is automatically entered into. Prizes can range from inflatable flamingos for your holidays to £500 and £1,000 holiday vouchers!
And we also hold our 'Ovation awards', where colleagues nominate other colleagues from across the business for a quarterly award, where they are deemed to have gone above and beyond their normal role. These colleagues are then recognised by our leadership and celebrated for showcasing our values at their best.
How is recruitment different today than when you first started out?
We're using social media now. There are a large number of people who follow us on LinkedIn, so they know when roles come up. We get a huge number of very, very high calibre candidates through our LinkedIn reach.
We try to be authentic as well. The whole candidate journey is to ensure that people get a real feel for Ontic, so that when they actually do join us, they already have a feeling of what it might be like to work here.
And we talk to them about what to expect at the interview. We have a quite a relaxed style and it's very conversational — that's the typical style throughout Ontic.
You're currently recruiting for next year's apprenticeship cohort. What type of apprenticeships does Ontic offer?
The majority of our apprenticeships are to support our technicians because they are the core of our business. We've got engineering technician apprenticeships which we offer in either electronics or mechanical specialisms. We offer these at Level 3, which is post-GCSEs, and Level 4, which is post A-Levels, and take the lead from our apprentices as to whether they want to continue with further qualifications up to degree level.
Last year, we introduced our first degree-level apprenticeship in cyber security and we will look at adding other apprenticeships in the future. For instance, we’ve had a facilities apprentice before who’s done really well and has now moved into our health and safety team after completing her apprenticeship.
What benefits does an apprenticeship at Ontic have over going straight into further education or university?
The benefit of an apprenticeship over university is that you're earning a salary whilst you're learning practical skills and gaining a qualification.
We also offer not just the the qualification and the experience, but we have what we call a 'life essentials programme', which includes financial advice; cooking and eating on a budget; and basic home maintenance skills. We also kit our new apprentices out with everything they need for college and the workplace — work trousers, safety shoes and glasses, polo shirts, sweatshirts and laptops.
Why choose the aerospace industry?
I think you have to be one of those people who sees an aeroplane or helicopter — something heavy, made of metal in the sky — and wonders 'how does that work?; 'how do you get that up there?'
It is just fascinating — it's an aircraft, made up of tens of thousands of different component parts and it typically flies for 30-40 years.
But we do have to explain to young people that we never see an aircraft — it's not like taking your car in for an MOT; you'd never know looking at our manufacturing areas that we work on planes as it's all intricate little pieces, not big wings.
Our technicians are people who are highly skilled in what they do; the aerospace industry is very, very highly regulated and every part is stamped and unique to the technician who worked on it. In this industry you know exactly what you need to do and you have so much training to make sure that it's always going be as safe as it possibly can be.
What is the most important piece of advice you would give a young person just starting out?
It doesn't matter if you haven't decided what you want to be or do — start with something you find interesting and it’ll lead you to all the right places.
We have many examples here of people who have started doing one thing and then find other roles that they never knew existed. When looking at our previous apprentices or employees who are well established in their careers, there’s so many people who started as apprentices or graduates and have found career pathways they never expected — some have moved abroad with their skills, some have become leaders, some have become specialists in highly skilled areas.
You're going to be working for a long time, so it's important that you enjoy what you're doing. Try and find a company that you enjoy, working with people who you enjoy spending time with — because that will be what makes the difference between you being happy or not happy in your role.
