Apprenticeship jobs up for grabs at In-Comm Training

Gareth Jones, joint managing director at In-Comm Training, made the rallying call this week and believes there are still lots of individuals looking to get involved in engineering and manufacturing that aren’t taking advantage of the world class training centres on their doorstep.

The firm, which operates a technical academy in Aldridge and the Marches Centre of Manufacturing & Technology in Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury, has recently embarked on a major recruitment drive to showcase how vocational learning can help bridge the current and future skills gap and provide excellent career opportunities for youngsters and more mature workers looking to switch jobs.

Over £7 million has been invested in the three facilities alone, offering over 40,000 sq ft of dedicated manufacturing training space, including the latest CNC machine tools, automation, robotics, metrology solutions and 3D printing.

This is reinforced by access to industry-experienced trainers and 11 technical partners, who include Blum-Novotest, Ceratizit WNT, Engineering Technology Group, Guhring, Hexagon, HK3D and Hyfore Workholding.

“Companies are coming forward and saying they want to invest in apprentices. That challenge has been overcome to a certain degree. We now need to make sure that, as a region, we’ve got a pipeline of young people or more mature learners to fill them,” said Gareth, who runs the business with his sister Bekki Phillips.

“At the moment we have 280 positions vacant at our three academies and these are for part and full-time trailblazer courses with a job at a local manufacturer at the end of it. This means you can learn from the best trainers, on the best equipment and get paid for it, with a recent partnership with University of Wolverhampton offering a pathway to a degree at the end of it – all without the associated debt that can go with it. That’s a £100,000 opportunity.

“Current vacancies range from apprenticeships in machining and maintenance to mechatronics and welding.”

The recent annual In-Comm Training Barometer, which is designed to take the temperature of industry’s appetite for training, revealed that 83 per cent of firms are still committed to taking on the next generation of engineers despite issues around the UK leaving the EU.

Nearly three quarters of companies have already put aside budget to recruit apprentices over the next 12 months, with a surprising number of businesses – 60 per cent – stating they feel the Apprenticeship Levy is working.

Of those that felt the Apprenticeship Levy wasn’t working, more than half said a lack of understanding was to blame for a lack of take-up, followed by 21 per cent who felt the right training wasn’t available and 13 per cent bemoaning a dearth of good quality training providers.

The report also highlighted that more than half of firms preferred part-time courses over the full-time option, whilst two fifths of companies engaged in apprenticeships don’t use them for upskilling.

This could be attributed to a lack of knowledge of what apprenticeships can be used for or the stigma still attached with this type of training and the notion that it is usually reserved for young people or someone at a basic skills level.