From Apprentice to Executive Series: meeting with Peter Marples one of the most influential people in apprenticeships

Peter Marples is one of the most influential people in further education and apprenticeship training. He is a big ambassador of apprenticeships and a real example of huge success achieved via the Apprenticeship route, it is an apprenticeship that started Peter off and now he is the head of 3AAA (Aspire Achieve Advance) and therefore an ideal individual for our video series: “From Apprentice to Executive”.

However, the man who use to help his mum and Dad run their village post office in the Derbyshire Peak District should not be here. In May 2007, Peter should have been in a helicopter with his close colleague and friend Phil Carter of the training provider Carter and Carter with which Peter’s business Assa had merged.

But in this great game called life; God’s will, Lady Luck, call it what you will, was on the side of Peter and he was not on the flight that killed Phil Carter and his 17-year-old son Andrew.

After coming out of early retirement which only lasted a few weeks, Peter has gone on to be the founder of the highly successful training provider 3AAA (Aspire Achieve Advance) along with Di McEvoy-Robinson, a former principal of West Nottinghamshire College.

It has achieved significant success and expansion including an Outstanding Ofsted report, creating 40 training centres called academies nationwide and is now one of the largest apprenticeship providers in the country employing over 500 staff itself.

Peter’s early days:

As a child in a family that ran a Post Office, Peter Marples was used to handling money at an early age and it seemed a natural step for him at the time to take an accountancy apprenticeship with Derbyshire County Council at the age of 16.

After this he joined the Audit Commission. This led to him being head hunted by KPMG where he ran the education section advising the Department for Education and the former Further Education Funding Council. It was only following this that he went into a business career that has seen a lot of success.

Peter Marples made news initially when he led a consortium to buy ‘his’ football team, Derby County, after the club went into administration.

In one way it was a great success because ‘the Rams’ returned to the Premier League but in others ways it did not work.
The problem was that he had thought running a football club would be like running a business but it did not work out that way.
“It was probably the craziest thing I have done,” he said.
“It’s one of those things that you get caught up in the emotion of buying the club you support and when you get into it you realise it is not what it seems.”

However, if running a football club did not work out entirely as he might have been hoped, there is no question that Peter Marples plays in the Premier League when it comes to being a successful apprenticeship provider.

This is not a man to make his private life public but it is known that a passion for cars led to him making a £75,000 donation to BBC ‘Children in Need’ in order to drive Ferraris belonging to DJ and television personality Chris Evans.

Face to Face

In my meeting with Peter at his head office in the heart of Derby we spoke about a number of topics including his core beliefs, his leaderships style, building teams creating a business culture and growing a business as well as the changing landscape including the apprenticeship levy. Peter said “I was never motivated by money” and “I am very passionate about apprenticeships” these are the formulas to making a business successful and it is why Peter’s 3AAA is very successful and as he jokingly said 3AAA’s success also comes because “being in the top of the alphabet is a huge advantage”

To add, speaking about the new levy Peter says “the levy is here to stay” and that “the levy is going to be transformational” Peter believes that the new levy is a new change for the apprenticeship world and it’s not going anywhere.

Since, Peter himself started as an apprentice I asked if he has any advice to give any younger people who are thinking about doing an apprenticeship. He replies by saying “I would advise 14-15 year olds to start early, start going to career fairs or even providers like ourselves”. And with regards with making choices in a business perspective, Peter believes that “if your going to make fish and chips be the best at making fish and chips”

To say the least, it was a pleasure meeting and interviewing Peter and it is no wonder why 3AAA and Peter are thriving in success because Peter has a mind of a true entrepreneur and a real passion for the work he does.

Connect with Peter here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-marples-4a413317


Thank you to all the team at 3AAA and Peter for taking time out to support our promotion of Apprenticeships via the “from Apprentice to Executive” video series.

CHARLIE Mullins will tell you that apprenticeships are the way forward.....

CHARLIE Mullins will tell you that apprenticeships are the way forward for everybody- businesses and for employees. In addition, that building a successful business is not as complex as many might claim and believe!

And he is a man worth listening to because after leaving school with no qualifications Charlie became Britain’s first millionaire plumber with a business now employing more than 300 people and turning over tens of millions and with no signs of slowing down at all.

Charlie openly supports Apprenticeships at any given opportunity, it is the apprenticeship that started Charlie off in his business, and this is the reason for my visit to his head office near Lambeth Road, to meet with him to discuss Apprenticeships but also entrepreneurship and business.

So, what does a man who certainly ‘walks the talk’ think makes for success in business?

“The way I run my business isn’t rocket science, its common sense,” said Charlie, who after leaving school at 15 – he believes his mistake was not to leave a year earlier – went on to do a plumbing apprenticeship.

Now comes the rub: “The only problem is that common sense isn’t that common.”

Charlie was the typical ‘man with a van’ and when he started in business that is what he had – second hand of course - along with a bag of tools.
Being young in the age of moon flights, Concord and the early pioneering of medical advances such as heart transplants, Charlie had his feet very much on the ground and from just nine years of age he wanted to be a plumber.


“I set out to change the image of the plumbing industry and get rid of the stigma of plumbers always turning up late in rusty old vans, no uniforms and with the arses hanging out their trousers, bad workmanship and ripping off the customer,” he said.

For Charlie plumbing is a trade that should run as a profession with high standards and it is an ethos that he expects from his employees.
His smart blue liveried vans and staff in uniforms have a corporate look.

His firm is regarded as the plumbers of choice for the stars, the rich and famous ranging from former Prime Minister David Cameron to stars of stage and screen and many more.

Apprentice training is part of raising the status and standing of plumbers. He is unhappy that anyone can call themselves a plumber and would also like greater regulation of plumbing including licensing.

In some respects, Charlie Mullins is a man of contradictions and is completely proud of this.
Born and raised on a London council estate, he is proud of his success and not ashamed to wear his money with a love of cars including a £300,000 Bentley. He has a number of homes and admits to spending a lot of money on holidays.

With a keen interest in politics, Charlie believes Margaret Thatcher helped to make it possible for people like him to ‘better’ themselves and set up businesses.

He has advised Government, including former Prime Minister David Cameron and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
However, he is much less enthusiastic about Prime Minister Theresa May and believes Brexit will prove to be a bad mistake.

He is a great believer in young people and a champion of apprenticeships. Charlie is a Patron of the Prince’s Trust and has setup ‘The Pimlico Apprenticeship School’ that he has put to Government and believes would help to dramatically cut youth unemployment.


Charlie is also a sponsor and fund raiser for The Rhys Daniels Trust that provides a home from home environment at Children’s Hospitals.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in a position to be able to put something back into society by helping others,” added Charlie Mullins.

But whilst being a strong advocate and champion of young people, Charlie has a huge regard for age and experience.

He makes no secret of the fact that he is keen to employ older people and someone over 100 and another in his 90’s have been on his books.
“Employ older people because their experience is priceless,” he added.

Experience and learning, at times from mistakes, is at the core of Charlie’s business success. He admits that borrowing from a bank was a huge error that almost resulted in the business going bust.
Perhaps it is because common sense is usually a product of age and experience and learning from the ‘school of hard knocks’ that it is not that common.

Charlie Mullins is in his early 60’s and put me to shame with his is very youthful look but what impressed me most was his energy levels shown in his enthusiasm and ambitions which include growing the business to an annual turnover of more than £100 million and having it recognised as the UK’s leading plumbing and service company.

I must say that in meeting with him, I found him truly inspiring, as he is the best kind of inspirer – doing it by example.

Please also review his take on my meeting with him on their website with the link below:
https://www.pimlicoplumbers.com/blog/apprentice-to-executive-filming-for-a-new-youtube-series-with-pathway-group

He is an avid user of twitter - connect with him on:
https://twitter.com/pimlicoplumbers

Thank you to all the team at Pimlico and Charlie for taking time out to support our promotion of Apprenticeships through “Apprentice to Executive” video series and the Asian Apprenticeship Awards.