SOME 60 engineering and business apprentices have been welcomed by a training provider in Furness.
Gen2 has seen more than 300 apprentices start their training schemes across Cumbria, including almost 60 at the Furness Skills Centre in Ulverston.
This impressive number is set to rise to more than 425 starting their apprenticeship with Gen2 by August 2017.
Among those starting with Gen2 are 33 students who are commencing a
degree apprenticeship with companies including Morgan Sindall, Jacobs, Balfour Beatty and Sellafield Ltd. The degree apprenticeship takes place over five years and after completing rigorous academic and vocational programme they will complete a level 6 apprenticeship which will include an honours degree in engineering.
Mike Smith OBE, chief executive officer of Gen2 said: “This continued demand clearly demonstrates the importance and value that our employers continue to place on high quality apprenticeships.
"With well over 2,600 applicants across the County, it also shows that young people are looking for alternatives to traditional education routes, including going on to sixth form and university. Increasingly they want to gain the employability skills that companies need as well as learn a profession whilst being paid, which is what an apprenticeship gives. This also shows in the quality of our applicants which has been at an all-time high, and allows our employers to take advantage and nurture Cumbria’s talented young people.”
Gen2’s training model is unique in that it only employs apprentices that meet the employers’ needs. Gen2’s success rates continue to be more than 20 per cent above the national average with over 91 per cent of apprentices achieving their apprenticeship.
Gen2 regularly engage with more than 100 employers in South Cumbria, and this year saw some of the largest employers in the area taking on new talent, including GSK, BAE Systems, Burlington Slate, Wax Lyrical and Kimberly-Clark.
Julie Fell, 21 of Bootle, has just started her mechanical apprenticeship and will be training to be a CNC machinist with Astec Precision.
Miss Fell, said: “I’ve written an application for Gen2 every year since I was 16 but have never had the courage to actually submit the application.
This year, I knew it was the right decision as I was vying for a new challenge. I’m excited to learn new things, as I enjoy being hands on and I’m constantly wanting to be active in my job.
"I know I’ll learn more of this job and look forward to the exciting opportunities this apprenticeship and working with Astec Precision will provide me with.”
Top South Cumbria apprentice in the running for national and county awards
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