Celebrating 20 years of Contego – Get Into Pest Control in Partnership with the Prince’s Trust

This year marks a special milestone for us, celebrating our 20^th year of Contego, looking back at where it all started. From a small local bird control business, a £500 grant and £1500 loan from the Prince’s Trust to a national UK company and industry leader in pest control.

And so, we’re going back to the beginning and investing in the future – working with young people to develop the next generation of pest control professionals.

At the beginning of March 2024, we launched our pilot ‘Get Into Pest Control’ course in partnership with the Prince’s Trust’s ‘Get Into’ initiative. We saw this collaboration as a natural evolution – the support of the Prince’s Trust and their belief in what we do allowed us to lay the foundations for the success we have today.

The course ran over 2 weeks and took place at the London Prince’s Trust building. We were fortunate enough to have a lot of interest and after a very successful taster day, chose a group of 7 (18–30-year-olds) to join us on the course.

‘Get Into Pest Control’ delivered by our team in collaboration with Prince’s Trust representatives, covered all the key areas of Pest Control, from the pest basics, to best practice, health & safety, identifying risk, pest control sales, falconry, and the infinite career opportunities available. It incorporated an immersive mix of classroom learning, group participation and hands on experiences, concluding with the group completing their RSPH Level 2 Safe Use of Rodenticides qualification, delivered by Contego’s RSPH certified trainers.

Chris Walker, Technical Trainer at Contego said “I got to know the candidates well over the two weeks and developed good relationships. Overall, I felt the whole process went really well and feel all of the candidates would make fantastic pest professionals”.

We’re thrilled with the success of the course, this opportunity has raised the bar for recruitment in the industry, by focusing on developing new talent within the communities they serve.

Michael, CEO at Contego said “The last two weeks I had the pleasure of spending several days alongside my team delivering content that I hope will set the young people on the scheme up for a great career in pest control. The content covered all aspects of the business model from understanding pest risk, public health, to sales to opportunities, growth areas, falconry and smart technology. We delivered a no-holes barred introduction to pest control, including a trip to the Excel for the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) Pest Ex event”.

The way Contego work, both together and with our customers, revolves around partnership, collaboration, and trust – our belief, is that the key to achieving success comes from growing together, offering that helping hand, and keeping the door open. Our aim with the course, was to offer the same level of support to the next generation, aligned with the values we hold that drive the service we deliver. We feel that ‘Get Into Pest Control’ has done just that.

“My vision was to impart enough knowledge to allow the young people to either join the Contego business or start their own business with the support of the Trust. I believe we really delivered an interactive and immersive experience and seeing the young people grow in confidence and knowledge was really a career highlight for me. Interviewing and offering job roles to these young people within Contego will be an absolute pleasure. I’d like to once again thank the Prince’s Trust as without the support of the Enterprise programme, maybe we wouldn’t be here today.” – Michael Taylor, CEO at Contego.

We would like to extend our thanks again to the Prince’s Trust, for allowing us the opportunity to run this course in partnership with them and for providing the industry with a stepping stone to a new way of thinking.

You can check out the post from the Prince’s Trust here: Linked-in – Facebook – Twitter

Keep an eye on our social media over the next few weeks as we share the full story with you! Linked-in – Facebook – Twitter

In the meantime, here’s a peek at some of the things we got up to: