A Staffordshire engineering firm is continuing its tradition of blooding the area's young engineers by teaming up with a local training organisation.

Newcastle-based Staffordshire Precision Engineering (SPE) has joined forces with the North Staffordshire Engineering Group Training Association (NSEGTA), to train aspiring engineers and take them on as apprentices.

The firm currently has three apprentices on the books, and is committed to taking on more later in the year. One third of SPE's 30 shop-floor staff joined the company as apprentices.

Joint MD Phil Smith said: “We have always had apprentices coming through, and ten of our current employees are either an apprentice at the moment or started that way.

“Everyone benefits from it – the apprentice gets a qualification and cash to support themselves while training, and we get a qualified member of staff from the area rather than bringing someone in from outside it.

“It's much better for us than taking on a raw school leaver who doesn't really know what they want to do – when they are on the course they can decide whether they want to go into engineering or not.

“And if they drop out, it shows us they weren't committed to engineering and saves us the hassle of replacing them and training someone else.”

In conjunction with the NSEGTA, SPE sponsors apprentices to take the Foundation in Engineering course at Stoke-on-Trent College . This leads to an Advanced Modern Apprenticeship (AMA) qualification.

During the course they will have intensive on-the-job training from SPE's engineers, helping them settle in and feel more at home when they start working for the company full-time.

Phil said: “We are renowned for the expertise of our engineers so they couldn't be trained by anyone better, and we have a record of holding onto them when they've finished the training.

“We must be doing something right – our very first apprentice started 22 years ago and is now the works foreman!

“Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many companies in the area doing this, which is a concern because we don't want tolose good engineers.

“We will definitely be taking on more this year though.”

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Issued By Market Care Public Relations
Your Contact: Richard Swancott on 01782 416371
or richardswancott@marketcare.net

Your contact for further info: Phil Smith on 01782 630500 or via email at p.smith@staffsprecision.co.uk