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RECORD HIGH FOR APPRENTICE INTAKE
There can be few companies that have espoused the National Apprenticeship Scheme as wholeheartedly as linear motion specialist, HepcoMotion®. Year on year it has augmented its skilled workforce with a fresh intake of engineering apprentices and 2011 is no exception in that regard.
What is significant, however, is the size of this year’s intake. Not since 1998, has the company committed to six new apprentices but that is the number that has just been recruited. All are following different pathways within the National Apprenticeship Framework to learn the skills sets specific to their chosen engineering discipline.
For HepcoMotion®, the scheme has proved a highly successful method of both overcoming a national skills shortage and also for ensuring its new talent receives training that is attuned to its specific design and production needs.
From the apprentices’ standpoint, it provides an attractive alternative to a costly university education and the opportunity for sponsored graduate study on completion of the apprenticeship.
“Prospective candidates repeatedly tell us they prefer to enter the engineering profession via this route because of the expense and uncertainty of university entry,” commented Bob Gregory, the Training Manager at HepcoMotion®. He continued: “Our apprentice retention rate is high and I attribute this to the excellent career opportunities that HepcoMotion® offers its trained staff.” Indeed this is borne out by three awards that have been presented to HepcoMotion® for the career progression of its apprentices; from Exeter College, the City of Bristol College and Brunel and Gordano Training.
Many HepcoMotion® apprentices now occupy key technical positions within the company. Typical examples include Shaun Hudd and David Steele who are respectively its Purchasing Manager and Quality Manager.
Of the six apprentices recently recruited, three are assigned to the company’s flagship production site in Tiverton, Devon. The other three are based at Braintree Precision Components, the HepcoMotion® Group responsible for the manufacture of critical system components such as bearings and journals.
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