Sheffield Forgemasters has recruited nine new apprentices to add to its existing specialist engineering workforce.
The 200-year-old steel company, which will train 59 apprentices in total this year, said nine are new school and college graduates studying for specialist careers and roles in all departments across its site.
It also confirmed that this year saw more than 200 people applying for the nine vacancies, a fact SFIL chief executive Professor Graham Honeyman said proved apprenticeships are a sought after route for young people.
“Over the years, we have raised the profile of engineering as an important career choice. Consequently, we have huge interest and the calibre of students coming to serve apprenticeships at Forgemasters is rising every year.”
“We offer our apprentices a great opportunity to pursue rewarding careers with a forward thinking company,” he added, in a recruitment process which saw successful applicants chosen through an assessment centre and a familiarisation visit.
One apprentice, South Machine Shop trainee machinist Joe MacDonald said: “I applied for the scheme because I love engineering and Forgemasters is a brilliant company. This is a great opportunity – the future could be amazing. I can’t believe I’ve got this chance.”
In addition to learning new skills through specific training modules, Forgemasters’ apprentices will learn from individually appointed mentors at its plant, many of whom possess more than 30 years of industry experience and knowledge.
This year will also see SFIL join forces with Tata Steel’s training centre in Stocksbridge, where several of the apprentices will study full-time in its high-tech training centre for six months before going into Forgemasters.
Tony Goddard, senior training advisor at Tata Steel, said: “Tata Steel has very similar processes to Forgemasters and lots of overlapping skills within the workforces, and so we are very happy to welcome SFIL apprentices to our centre.
“The apprentices are now familiarising themselves with our mechanical equipment and machine shop tools and in the next few months will work in smaller teams in their specialist areas.”