Apprentices helping Shropshire's firms to thrive
Businesses have spoken about the importance of apprenticeships in helping to boost their workforce.
Engineering and building contractor McPhillips and poultry firm Avara Foods are among those who continue to benefit from Telford College’s apprenticeship programme, which has seen achievement rates continuing to rise.
The college currently has more than 1,000 apprentices working with well over 350 companies and organisations, including some of the biggest names in the UK.
McPhillips has worked closely with the college on the creation of a new civil engineering training area which opened earlier this year at the campus. The training area has been specifically designed to hone skills in areas such as drainage, road and footpath construction, kerb laying, surfacing, and paving.
McPhillips’ marketing manager Mark Kiddie said: “We have been working with Telford College for a number of years and run a two-year apprenticeship course.
“We recruit up to 10 apprentices a year and they do a day release here at Telford College and the remainder of the week they are out on site putting some of the skills they have been taught here into practice.
“Being able to practice and reinforce the theory they learn is vital. Apprenticeships give us the next generation of our workforce.”
Peter McMillan, of Avara Foods, said: “Having been though an apprenticeship myself many decades go, I see it as a vital bloodline for the company going forward.
“We need apprentices which are current in terms of the new technology we are using as we move away from manual labour into automation and the higher level robotics.”
Schneider Electric at Stafford Park is another company which has a long-standing apprenticeships partnership with the college.
Craig Hyde, customer satisfaction and quality manager, said: “Apprenticeship programmes are designed to give on-the-job experience whilst gaining a recognised qualification, and Telford College works with us to provide quality training.
“Apprenticeships are vital for Schneider Electric to ensure that we have young talent in our business that we can grow and develop.
“They bring new ideas, energy and enthusiasm into your business, strengthen our workforce, and many choose to undertake further education after the apprenticeship for personal development and progression – which supports the business as well as the individual.
“Many of our apprentices have moved in the company to exciting new roles and are loyal to the company.”
Avara Foods apprentice Karol Nazar, 19, from Telford, has already completed Level 2 engineering at Telford College.
“I’m enjoying my engineering apprenticeship and knowing the college has recently published some fantastic achievements fills me with confidence. At Avara I work with engineers on the machinery on the production lines, because I’ve already completed an engineering qualification I get given small tasks which is teaching me a lot.
“Engineering apprenticeships are great opportunities, especially with one of Telford’s biggest employers and Telford College,” he said. "I get support from Avara and my tutor too. I plan to go further in my career hopefully progressing at Avara Foods.”
Telford College principal Graham Guest added: “We do a lot of work with businesses and we are out there listening to them about exactly what they want and what their order books are saying.
“We have developed a college which is a lot more responsive and we can tailor our students to what the employers want.
“We can’t influence national policy but we can continue to work with the LEP to ensure businesses have a skilled workforce.”
