Why Benjamin Franklin Is Our Inspiration

We’re proud to associate our company with Benjamin Franklin. He was born in Boston at a time when America was still a British colony. He died as one of the founding fathers of the United States: a nation that came to surpass Great Britain as the world’s most powerful economy little more than a century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

To achieve what Franklin did in a single human lifetime should be an inspiration to us all.

Like our young company, Ben Franklin drew upon influences and relationships on both sides of the Atlantic. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture in the early 1770s during one of his many trade and diplomatic missions to London. Tom Bewick, one of our British founders, was made a fellow of the RSA in the early 2000s, for his contribution to industry training and commerce. For some years now, he has been active in supporting America’s apprenticeship expansion effort.

Franklin was a great polymath. He revelled in new discoveries, making important contributions to the early science of electricity. If the Internet had been invented in Franklin’s time, there’s no doubt that he would have been as passionate about the power of computing as modern day Americans like Bill Gates. We think he would have approved of the work of our other British founder, Dominic Gill. He has been responsible for spearheading Microsoft’s apprenticeship program in the UK.

Franklin himself was an apprentice. He received his indenture papers in 1717 in support of his brother’s print works. Like a lot of Franklin’s contemporaries, the future president understood the importance of hard work and the skills of acquiring a trade as a means for self-advancement and national prosperity. He was made an honorary doctor of law and conversed with many renowned academics, but this never got in the way of his practical nature. You could say Franklin epitomized what first gave America its real competitive edge.

Rediscovering that edge is what Franklin Apprenticeships is all about. Our American founder and CEO, Kim Nichols, has taken on that challenge. Like the other founders, she believes in the power of high quality, registered U.S. apprenticeships and is passionate about helping young adults establish successful career pathways.

Apprenticeships never really died out on either side of the Atlantic. Today, they have been transformed into an exciting new pathway for young adults to find rewarding careers. They represent a viable alternative to four-year college without the debt.

Franklin Apprenticeships has the key to these rewarding careers. Our expertise is in the fact that we work with tried and tested models of delivery that result in great work-based and paid apprenticeships. Our apprenticeship model delivers to small and large firms huge improvements in productivity and employee commitment. Some have been rolled out successfully in the U.K. Others are home grown in the United States. We focus on what works.

We’re here to work with you. You could be a major employer looking to take on apprentices but need help in designing the right program. Perhaps you represent a state workforce development agency or an economic development department trying to expand apprenticeship opportunities to build a skilled workforce. Community Colleges are key to America’s renaissance in apprenticeship. Franklin Apprenticeships has the tools to help them rise to the challenge.

If your goals are about trying to rediscover America’s competitive edge, then Franklin Apprenticeships would be delighted to hear from you.

Tom Bewick, Founder

Dominic Gill, Founder

Kim Nichols, Founder & CEO