Gripple, the Sheffield-headquartered, employee-owned manufacturer of wire joiners and tensioners and suspension solutions for agriculture, construction, solar and infrastructure, has appointed two new graduates, plus an undergraduate placement student to the business, demonstrating its commitment to investing in its future talent.

Joining the Gripple Graduate Scheme is Jacob Bradder, a mechanical engineering graduate of Sheffield Hallam University and Claudia Creswell, an economic and modern languages graduate from the University of Sheffield. In addition, Samuel Valentine, a product design engineering student from Loughborough University has joined Gripple on an undergraduate placement. Samuel is spending a year working in product design within the Ideas & Innovation team at the Innovation Centre in Sheffield, gaining real life experience of product design and design engineering.

Jacob and Claudia were successful in applying for Gripple’s scheme, which always receives a huge number of applications and is in its eleventh year.   They will spend 16 months rotating around the business, spending several weeks in a number of key departments, including engineering and advanced manufacturing, marketing, finance, digital transformation, IT and sales, where they will work on specific projects and get real hands-on experience of what it’s like to work in each department. 

To enhance their personal development, each graduate is allocated a ‘home’ department for the duration of the programme and is encouraged to find a senior mentor in the business, whilst being supported by Gripple’s People and Culture team.

Emma Hibbert, Recruitment Manager at Gripple, explains; “What makes our grad scheme different is that our graduates can, and indeed are expected to make an impact from day one and they are involved in real-life projects that add value to the business.  They are able to experience many different areas of working at Gripple, which helps them build up their knowledge and reach the right decision as to the best role for them within the company at the end of the programme.”

As part of the Gripple Graduate Scheme, the graduates are expected to organise a major company event to raise money for charity.  This gives them the experience of using skills in organisation, networking, sales and negotiation.

Recent graduates Kris Chua and Becky Malkin this summer raised more than £6,000 with their GLIDEFest event this summer, which was split between St Luke’s Hospice, BEAT (UK eating disorder charity) and the Gripple Foundation charity of the year, Create a Dream Foundation. The event was a huge success and was held at Gripple’s GLIDE House in Attercliffe with live music, a barbecue, games, raffles and fundraising activities.

Gripple is committed to its people and is dedicated to its unique culture ‘the Gripple spirit’ that sets it apart.  The company aims to recruit people who share its values of fun, innovation, passion, entrepreneurship, teamwork, integrity - who are invested in the shared purpose to be a fun, rewarding place to work.  As an employee-owned business, Life at Gripple isn’t just about getting the job done, it’s about contributing to the present and working towards an ambitious future.

Gripple will shortly be launching its 2024 scheme, with pathways on offer including Technology, Commercial, People & Culture and Operations, with the company looking to recruit graduates with a specific interest in business IT, business management and Human Resources. 

Anyone interested in applying for the 2024 Gripple Graduate Scheme should visit https://www.gripple.com/gripple-careers/graduates-placements/