08/02/11
Employers Urged to Embrace Apprenticeships
High-flying trainees from a top Broughton-based engineering business are leading the call for Wales’ most talented individuals to consider apprenticeships as the route to successful careers.
Engineering apprentices from international, leading aircraft manufacturer Airbus are marking ‘Apprenticeship Week’ (February 7 – 11) by raising the flag for this respected work-based path to fulfilling and financially rewarding jobs.
They are renewing the drive they began six months ago when they shared their training experiences with many hundreds of people at skillscymru in the Millennium Stadium; organised by the Welsh Assembly Government with the support of the European Social Fund, skillscymru was the largest skills and careers event ever held in Wales.
Craft apprentice, Robert Owens, 31, of Wrexham, says “The Airbus apprentice programme has been fantastic. The scheme and the apprentice advisers put me on a clear career path and gave me the opportunity to travel and meet a wide range of people including the Duke of York.”
Robert who left school and worked for a number of production companies before starting a formal apprenticeship continued: “The apprenticeship programme has really given me golden opportunities, which I could not have otherwise had without the support of the Welsh Assembly Government initiative, the All Age Apprenticeship programme.”
Gary Griffiths, Manager of Apprentice Programme and Vocational Competencies at Airbus added, “We are extremely proud of progression routes available at Airbus. Someone joining as a craft apprentice can progress to the Higher Apprenticeship with opportunities to complete an Honours Degree, and then work towards an MSc and chartership.”
Gary said skillscymru provided a valuable platform to get the message about apprenticeships out to schools and helped connect Airbus with potential apprentices.
Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills, Lesley Griffiths, added her voice to the campaign. She said: “Apprenticeship training plays a huge role in the creation of a competitive edge across all sectors of the Welsh economy.
“Experience has shown that disciplined and structured training in the workplace backed by our excellent further education colleges and training providers, produces skilled people who can operate at the highest level in businesses and be at the heart of our future success as a nation.
”The Welsh Assembly Government introduced a range of measures to support the continuation of apprenticeship training during the current economic downturn. With support from European Structural Funds, £20m has been made available to ensure young people leaving school or college can access quality training through the Pathways to Apprenticeships and Young Recruits Programmes which have proved to be extremely popular and effective.“
Apprenticeship Week is a UK-wide campaign promoted in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government to highlight the benefits to both employers and individuals of committing themselves to apprenticeship training in order to build the skills needed across all sectors of industry.
Meanwhile Bill Peaper of SEMTA, the sector skills council for engineering, urged more Welsh employers to invest in training apprentices to ensure the industry has enough talented young people coming through to replace the large number likely to retire soon.
Further details about the award winning Airbus Apprenticeship scheme can be found at www.airbus.com/en/careers The closing date for applications to enter the 2011 programme is 7 March 2011.
