Wilton Engineering boosting college apprenticeship numbers

Major Teesside company; Wilton Engineering has boosted its number of apprentices by a further 20 with help from our outstanding Apprenticeship Team and current apprenticeship cohort, furthering our long-term partnership, which has worked successfully for years to produce the skills required in the fabrication and welding sector.

After appointing an apprenticeship training coordinator, Andy Ryder, Wilton only has plans to continue investing in that area of the business by helping more people get into work. Wilton has also pledged to recruit from this area knowing they are preparing to open a training centre onsite to enhance the skills of their new and existing workforce.

And the organisation, whose CEO Bill Scott started out as an apprentice, wants to give people a chance to shine regardless of whether they want a change of career or are recently out of school. John Price, Group HR manager at Wilton, said:

“The fabrication sector needs this continued investment to provide for the future UK capability across a number of sectors. This can only be achieved with a workload to back up not only the investment but to provide the valuable experience new apprentices need over a sustained period. The customers we work with provide sustainability, varied projects and the opportunity to offer a career not just a job. We always find the apprentice recruitment process enjoyable, and this year has been no exception. It’s been good to see a cross-section of applicants, both male and female, covering school leavers, people who had embarked on studying fabrication and welding and migrated into other careers because they were unable to secure apprenticeships earlier in life. Or others that are current employees looking to better themselves and ex-servicemen looking for a new career. It’s clear an apprenticeship appeals to a variety of backgrounds and age groups. Next year we plan to invest again and by the end of 2022, our new Training School on-site will be fully operational. It’s a great time to join the group.”

Some of our recent Apprentices who had joined the Wilton programme included two school leavers from Middlesbrough and an older apprentice who had served in the armed forces. Even one of our current welding Lecturers; Lauren Calvert, came through the ranks on the programme, so full circle so to say. Gary Riches, the College’s assistant principal, said: 

“We are helping Wilton close the skills gap for fabricators and welders. We have had various meetings between the College senior team and the senior team at Wilton to which there have been lengthy discussions around designing programmes to meet the needs of the sectors that Wilton work in. We have a long-established relationship of working together, they often recruit from our learners on courses to make them apprentices and we work in collaboration to deliver the right level of training within the workplace. It is pleasing to see how buoyant Wilton Engineering is. We are pleased to have this transformational partnership to help them recruit en masse so they can deliver the quality of work to keep delivering in the sectors they work in.”